We don't need Portals
by BlackNightmareDragon
Summary: When a modified DeLorean and a lightning bolt get Doc and Marty stuck in a post-apocalyptic America, their only hope of a way home is to investigate a shed. But when that shed hides more than just tools, they discover a whole underground scientific labyrinth, a couple of crazy AIs and the adventure of a lifetime.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I'm not entirely sure where the inspiration for this came from, but hopefully it'll turn out okay. This is set in the normal Portal 2 universe, but where everything with Chell never happened, and Marty and Doc were the ones to go through that instead. Bit of a weird crossover, but I love Portal and I love BTTF, so this happened!**

 **...**

"So, Doc, what's the plan?" Marty leaned against the DeLorean casually, arms crossed. "What's this thing supposed to do?"

"Theoretically," Doc replied, "It should allow us to travel much further through time than before. The previous limit on the time circuits was December 31 9999 at 11:59pm. This should allow us to travel much further around,"

Marty nodded and continued watching as the scientist tightened screws and adjusted knobs and whatever else he was doing to the contraption. It all looked pretty confusing; the workshop was a mess of wires and bolts, pieces of metal were everywhere and papers littered the floor. Alright, the papers were normal, but the rest seemed out of place. Einstein was dozing in a corner, his bed partially covered by the papers.

"How long do you think this will take?" Marty asked after a while.

"Shouldn't be too long," Doc responded, tongue poking out in concentration. "I just have to make sure all these damn wires have a place to go. I can't possibly leave them like this - it would be far too dangerous."

"Right, not to mention it would look pretty half-hearted," Marty added.

"I guess it would match the rest of the car then," Doc chuckled. "I never could be bothered to make it look particularly presentable. As long as it works, I don't really care what it looks like,"

Marty laughed. "I guess it looks cooler that way. It doesn't make it look like it's been made in a factory."

"The initial parts were made in a factory," the scientist pointed out. "But the time-travel components were all handmade. You know that,"

"Exactly," Marty replied. He leant his head back and yawned. He hadn't been sleeping particularly well recently on account of the fact that he was under a lot of stress from his final exams. He'd almost flunked History so he was determined to do better in the rest of them.

Doc looked over to him and shook his head. He knew Marty had a tendency to leave things until the last minute, which is what he'd been doing with his exams recently. He'd been studying like mad to try and cram in a year's worth of knowledge in a few days, meaning staying up until the early hours every night so far. He just hoped that Marty would be alright in his exams.

As he finished tightening the last bolt, he put the wrench down. "Come on, let's go get you some coffee,"

"Thanks," Marty yawned again before standing up straight, beginning to follow the scientist out the door. "I need it,"

"You need to stop pushing yourself so much," Doc replied. "This is why it's best to start revising early, so you don't land in this situation,"

Marty rolled his eyes. "It's a bit late now, isn't it?"

Doc sighed. "I still told you to start revising early, didn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah," the teenager sighed.

Doc rolled his eyes as he pushed his front door open. Jules and Verne were having a competition on one of the 21st-Century consoles their father had bought for them. It looked like some sort of racing game, but Marty wasn't paying any particular attention. Clara looked up from where she was reading at the kitchen table as they entered.

"How's the DeLorean going?" she asked, replacing her bookmark and putting the book down.

"Those wires are still being a nuisance," Doc replied, taking a seat opposite her at the table. "And Marty's yawning doesn't make it any easier,"

Marty took a third seat to Clara and put his arms on the table, laying his chin on them. "Sorry, I've just been insanely tired recently."

"If you'd started your revision earlier, you wouldn't have to cram it all into a couple of weeks." Doc replied, rolling his eyes.

Marty groaned and buried his whole face in his arms. Clara laughed. "He's right you know, Marty."

"That's what's making me wish he'd shut up," the teenager groaned.

Doc shrugged and sat back in his seat. "It's your own fault,"

Marty groaned loudly again. "You sound just like my parents!"

"Maybe that's a good thing, that way you have two pairs of adults trying to talk some sense into you," Doc smirked. Clara laughed again.

Marty shot Doc a glare. "I came round to help you work on the DeLorean, not to be lectured about school,"

Doc laughed and elbowed his shoulder gently. "Well go and get some coffee then meet me back out in the garage,"

Marty rose from the table and walked over to the coffee machine, placing a mug on the worktop next to it. A minute later, he was holding a cup of strong coffee in his hands, taking a sip from it every now and then. He followed the scientist back out to the garage and set back to work on the DeLorean.

The pair worked for another hour, during which time Marty completely drained his coffee and had gone back for a second mug, before the device was fitted to the dashboard and the newly-modified time machine was ready for testing.

"Come on," Doc gestured for Marty to join him inside. "We'll go ten thousand years into the future and see what happens,"

Marty gave the car a wary look. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, we've only just built the thing. When you first tested out the DeLorean you used Einstein instead,"

"But that was only a minute into the future, and Einstein can't drive the DeLorean by himself." Doc pointed out. "At least we can get back to our original time,"

Marty sighed and got in, strapping the seat belt on. "You're the doc, Doc,"

Doc took this as the signal and started up the DeLorean's engine. He drove it out onto an open stretch of road. It was absolutely pouring with rain and Marty could have sworn he heard thunder.

"Hey Doc? Can't this wait until later? Remember what happened in 1955, last time there was lightning around?"

"All too well," Doc shuddered a little. "But you must remember, lightning is attracted to the nearest point on the Earth's surface, so it would most likely strike something tall like a tree or a building. The DeLorean is only five foot tall, there's practically no chance of us being struck,"

"Right," Marty still didn't sound too confident, but remained in the seat. "Let's get this over with,"

Doc nodded and pressed down on the accelerator. The car began to gain speed, and he turned the time circuits on. The speedometer gradually crept closer to eighty eight.

Just as that number hit, so did something else. And that something else was a bolt of lightning. The sparks engulfed the car in an ear-splitting shout, drowning out Marty's scream as the car vanished.

While the DeLorean was indeed only five foot high, it was made of steel, an excellent conductor of electricity. The lightning had been attracted to it, struck the car and taking its two occupants far into the future.

…

When the car eventually rolled to a halt, both occupants got out. The ice covering the car melted, then evaporated easily in the blaring midday sun. The landscape was bleak, to put it lightly. Tall, brown grass lay around them for miles and miles in every direction.. The flat horizon was punctuated only by a small, wooden shed placed perhaps a hundred feet from where they were currently. Marty could see ruins of old buildings, clearly Hill Valley, resting in the grass.

"Jesus Christ Doc! Where are we? _When_ are we?"

Doc looked at the display on the dashboard of the car. The display was fizzling, displaying seemingly random numbers, none of which remained there for very long. They had been short-circuited by the lightning. "I don't have a clue. The display is busted,"

"Damnit," Marty cursed. "Well can't we just go back?"

"No," Doc sighed. "It seems as though both the time circuits and the flux capacitor are completely fried,"

Marty groaned. "You have _got_ to be kidding me,"

"I wish I was, Marty," the scientist sighed. "Come on, maybe there's something in that shed we can use,"

"Right," Marty nodded glumly, beginning to walk over to the small shack. Doc followed him, but he couldn't help but look around at the scenery. From the looks of the rubble, something had burned the whole of Hill Valley to the ground a long time ago. All he could see were some broken rocks, twisted metal bars and … was that a _skeleton?!_

Doc shuddered and returned his attention to the shack. Several warning signs were painted on the door, reading "CAUTION". That couldn't be a good thing. Hanging above the door, to the left, was a small security camera, although it looked more like a white eyeball than any camera Doc had ever seen. He had a feeling that this shed was more than it appeared to be.

Marty pulled the door open and was met with a white, cylindrical elevator. It appeared to be very well made, with its glass sliding door wide open. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Why would an elevator be placed in a tiny shed in the middle of nowhere? Had it not been for Doc being there too, he would have been dead in three seconds.

Standing in the corner was a three foot high, white, slightly oval-shaped object. It had a red circle painted on the front of it and it stood on three legs. A red laser beam came from its optic, if that is what the circle could be called. At the presence of the two newcomers, the sides of object pulled apart, revealing two guns on either side. The red laser beam drifted over towards them, landing firmly on Marty's chest.

" _There you are…"_

Doc grabbed Marty and pulled him backwards out the door. The scientist tripped over and the teenager fell backwards into his lap. Several loud shots could be heard, before that high-pitched voice said " _Sentry mode activated,"_ and the red laser beam stopped drifting around.

"What was that?" Marty exclaimed. "Was it trying to kill us?!"

"It appears so," Doc replied, panting a little bit. He still had a firm grip on Marty's arm. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Marty got to his feet, brushing himself off and offering Doc a hand up. He pulled the scientist to his feet. "You?"

"Just a little startled," Doc replied. He looked back at the DeLorean, then to the shed again. "Our only hope of getting home is checking inside there, but we'll have to be quick."

Marty looked at the shed warily. "Alright…"

Both of them took a deep breath and ran straight for the elevator. The white thing barely had time to target them before the door automatically slid shut and the tube descended deep into the ground. The elevator was pretty small, and Marty was pressed against Doc's chest for the whole journey downwards. If either of them had claustrophobia, this would be a nightmare.

As they descended, Marty caught glimpses of other rooms. Some looked as though there were overgrown with ivy and other plants, others were full of more of those white objects he'd seen earlier. Sometimes vast, empty chasms could be seen through the glass, fog preventing them from seeing further into the underground labyrinth.

Soon, the lift came to a stop. The door slid open and Marty walked out, soon followed by Doc. The room they were in at the moment was bleak and bare. The walls had partially crumbled away and vines grew in from the sides. Dust covered the floor and the sound of dripping water could be heard from somewhere beyond the wall.

A set of metal steps led up to a circular door with a blue stick figure painted upon it. It looked as though the figure was running out from behind a wall. The pair walked up the steps, their footsteps echoing around the room. The door slid open, revealing a metal walkway towards what looked like a set of hotel rooms. They too looked abandoned. A metal rail hung above their heads, reminding Marty of train tracks. One of the doors was left open and, cautiously, both of them decided to walk into the small room.

They were met with a bed and some rather withered furniture. Blinds on the windows let in a thin shaft of light, indicating that the room was rather dusty. As they took a few steps further into the room, a draught blew and the door slammed shut. Doc would have pulled on the handle, had there _been_ a handle. The pair of them were now stuck there. The blinds seemed to automatically slide shut, making the room a lot darker than it had been a minute ago.

"Now what?" Marty asked, feeling Doc place a hand on his shoulder.

"I think we should just sit down and wait this out," Doc replied. "The worst thing to do would be to panic,"

Marty let out a breath. "Right…" He sat on the floor with his back against the bed and Doc sat next to him. After a little while, Doc began to drift off. He slumped down, snoring. Marty soon joined him, falling asleep.


	2. Courtesy Call

" _Go-od morni-*krsshk* You have been in suspension fo 9… 9 9-"_

Marty yawned as he sat up, rubbing his eyes. He got wearily to his feet, intending to head towards the bathroom when he froze. The events of the previous day caught up with him. The lightning, the shed, the white thing, the elevator and the strange underground building.

He looked to the man beside him. Doc was still asleep, snoring. He knelt beside him, shaking the scientist's shoulder. "Doc, Doc wake up,"

Doc murmured something but began to sit up. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, still yawning. "'M up,"

Marty sat beside him, sighing. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

Before Doc had the chance to answer, a voice called to them from the other side of the door. "Hello? Anyone in there? Could you, err, open the door please?"

Both men jumped, but Marty got up and walked over to the door. The door appeared to swing open automatically, revealing a spherical, blue-eyed robot hanging from the rails on the ceiling Marty had seen earlier.

"AAAH!" Both of them yelped simultaneously. Marty took a couple of steps backwards.

"Oh gosh, you look terr- uh I mean, you look good, you both look fine," the robot babbled. "Are you alright?"

"No! No, we're not alright!" Marty exclaimed. "Our fucking car crashed here, we found that elevator and we've been stuck in this room for hours!"

The robot blinked twice. "Err, calm down there mate, it's okay. I'm gonna help the pair of you get out of here,"

Doc got to his feet, standing beside Marty. "And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"Well," the little robot slid forward on the rail into the room, causing Doc to duck down. "First of all, you need to put those on,"

Marty was about to ask what exactly "those" meant when something else slid along the rail into the room. It was a container. It opened up, dropping several items onto the floor before disappearing through the door. The teenager picked up one of the items, turning it over in his hands. It appeared to be a white boot with a metal bar coming out the back of it. The bar was curved, almost meeting the boot at the handle. The boot itself looked as though it would come up to Marty's knee almost.

"They're long-fall boots," the robot went on. "See, there's an awful lot of jumping involved, so those boots have been designed to allow you to fall really far without you know, breaking your legs and becoming a pancake on the floor like- never mind,"

"Like who?" Doc asked, picking up the slightly larger pair of boots.

"Some of the other test subjects," the robot replied, although his optic shifted to the side, giving him a guilty look. "The earlier ones."

" _Test subjects?!"_

"Well yeah, basically humans were brought here in the first place to see how you guys would react to being put into differents tests. Jumping over gaps, putting boxes on buttons, stuff like that," the robot shifted his chassis a little bit as if to nod.

"Oh great," Marty groaned. "So how exactly do we get out of here?"

"Put those boots on, I'll be back in a minute. You'll need to change, too. Your clothes will get destroyed by the grid-thingy if you go through it." With that, the robot slid along the rail into the centre of the room, disappearing into the ceiling through a panel. Clunking, whirring and button-pressing sounds came from where the robot was.

Marty looked at the clothes on the floor. Two pairs of underwear, two orange jumpsuits and two white T-shirts lay on the floor. Each item had a circular logo on it, comprised of eight black triangles. He exchanged a look with the scientist, who only shrugged. Grabbing the smaller set of clothes, Marty disappeared into the small adjoining bathroom in order to get changed in private.

The bathroom was absolutely filthy. It was in desperate need of a clean. Grime covered the tiles and the sink, giving the impression that someone had smeared dirt (or something even more foul) all over the place. After the two cups of coffee Marty had had the day before, he rather urgently needed to go. The conditions were awful, but his need overpowered that. Once he'd been, finished getting dressed and pulled the boots on, he exited the bathroom. Doc entered after him, pushing the door shut as he too went to change.

Once they were both dressed in the jumpsuits, the robot called to them from the ceiling. "I'll get us out of here, don't worry!"

Suddenly, the whole room seemed to swing around violently, causing Marty to fall over. Doc grabbed onto the wall for support. It felt as though they were on a rollercoaster. The lamp on the desk fell over, rolling around on the floor.

"What the hell?!" Marty yelled, trying to get to his feet, only succeeding in falling over again.

Before the robot could answer, a monotonous male voice echoed through the room. " _Please prepare for emergency evacuation."_

"Stay calm!" The robot shouted, although by the sound of his voice it sounded as though he wasn't particularly calm himself. ""Can you hear me?"

"Yeah!" Doc shouted. "What the hell was that?"

The room stopped moving, the panels on the ceiling slid open and the robot reappeared. "That was nothing. No need to worry about that, no, everything is fine! Now, you said you left your car outside?"

"Yeah, outside that little shed thing," Marty replied. "We came in here looking for something to fix it,"

The robot nodded, swinging around on the rail a little. "Right. Normally, test subjects _do_ experience some, uh, _cognitive deterioration_ after a few months in suspension,"

"We haven't been in suspension!" Doc explained. "Like Marty said, we came in here, looking for spare parts for our car, we got locked in here and we fell asleep."

"Are you sure?" The little robot asked. "'Cause it seems as though you both might have a little bit of brain damage. Being under suspension for fifty thousand years can do that to a person,"

" _WHAT?!"_ Both men exclaimed. " _Fifty thousand years?!"_

"Yeah, it's roughly that," the robot nodded again. "This room has been out of use for ages, and suddenly I find you two in it. What are your names, anyway?"

"Dr Emmett L Brown," Doc replied. He gestured with a thumb towards the teenager. "This is Marty McFly,"

"Nice to meet you!" The robot chirped cheerfully. "My name's Wheatley. Well, uh, at least, I think it is, last time I checked,"

Marty raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, _last time you checked?_ Isn't there any other robot around who knows you?"

"Only the other cores and they're all a little, well, a few bolts short of a laptop, if you know what I mean," Wheatley moved his upper handle in a way that simulated someone moving their eyebrows. "Oh, and… _her,"_

"Who's 'her'?" Doc asked, taking a seat on the bed. Marty plonked himself down next to him.

" _Her,_ the leader of this place. The boss. The supercomputer in charge of it all. See, she _was_ in charge of it all until someone stopped her." Wheatley explained. "A _human_ of all people brought her down! Can you believe it?! A _human!"_ As he noticed the offended look he received from Doc and Marty, he quickly apologised. "Right, erm, sorry."

Before any of them could speak, a siren started blaring. The siren was soon followed by the same voice from earlier. " _All reactor core safeguards are now non-functional. Please prepare for reactor core meltdown,"_

Wheatley disappeared into the ceiling again. Marty and Doc exchanged worried glances. The room began shaking again but swung around much more violently this time. Doc grabbed Marty's arm and pulled him to the side as an entire wall fell apart.

"Look, I wasn't gonna mention this to you," Wheatley called. "But I'm in big trouble at the moment. How are you two doing down there?"

"Everything's just peachy!" Marty replied sarcastically, letting out a yell as the whole ceiling fell apart, revealing that the room was made of metal bars covered by thin plaster. Debris fell from the ceiling and Doc pulled the teenager close to him, attempting to shield him.

"The reserve power has gone and run out!" Wheatley shouted over the noise. "So of course, the _whole_ relaxation centre stopped waking up the bloody test subjects!"

The room swung around a lot more and the pair of humans stumbled as they tried to maintain their footing.

"Hold on tight!" the robot shouted again. "This bit's difficult! And of course, nobody told me anything! Nooo, why should they tell _me_ anything?! You know, about the lives of the ten thousand bloody test subjects I'm supposed to look after?!"

Doc held Marty tight, although both of them still got showered with falling plaster.

"We're almost there, can you see?" Wheatley called again. Looking through the hole in the wall, Doc could make out several large containers, much like the one they were in now. "Hold on, I don't know if we can make it through!"

Wheatley was clearly controlling the movement of the container at this point, because it suddenly swung upwards, crashing through the gap between some of these containers. Marty could hear several other containers fall down, making a huge noise as they went.

"Who's fault do you think it'll be when the management comes down here and finds ten thousand bloody vegetables?!" Wheatley shouted. The container swung sideways, crashing hard into another one next to it. The other container was knocked down. "Damn, I hit that one!"

Doc was starting to wonder who on Earth put this guy in charge of the lives of so many people. It seemed like a huge mistake. This robot clearly wasn't capable of much, so whoever had put him in charge of this really needed to think things through.

"Listen," Wheatley called again. "If anyone asks, not that they will of course, but if anyone asks, please for my sake say that last time you checked, everyone looked pretty much alive, alright? You know, _not_ dead!"

Marty gulped. This guy had let _ten thousand_ people die?! What was gonna happen to them?! Suddenly, he was really freaked out. This guy was clearly incapable of taking care of anyone, so what if they ended up dead too!?

"Alright, we're almost there!" the robot shouted. "On the other side of that wall" - looking, the pair could see a huge wall with the words "Docking Station" painted on it - "is one of the old testing tracks. There's a device in there that we'll need to get outta here! I think this is a docking station, get ready!"

The room swung backwards, before swinging forwards quickly. The room slammed into the wall, creating a large dent and causing the pair to fall over hard. "Good news!" Wheatley called. "This is not a docking station, so that's that. I'm gonna see if I can manually break through, hold on tight!" With that, the robot swung the container into the wall again, making the wall crumble apart slightly. "Remember, you're looking for a gun that can make holes! Not bullet holes, but - oh you'll figure it out! Seriously do hold on this time!

Wheatley swung the box into the wall again, breaking through and revealing a set of rooms below. "HAHA!" He cheered triumphantly, before coming out of the panels.

Doc released his grip on Marty (which he'd inadvertently tightened during their little trip) and the teenager stood back, brushing bits of plaster out of his hair. Doc let out a shaky breath.

"Right," Wheatley didn't seem the least bit concerned about how they were doing. "Through there, there's some old testing chambers. Don't worry, they're a piece of cake. I can't go through with you, but I'll meet you on the other side!"

"What is this gun supposed to look like?!" Marty asked, but the core had already disappeared down the rail, presumably into another room. The teenager sighed, walking towards the gap in the wall. Both of them stood at the edge and looked down. Cracked glass covered a small, square room. From their point of view, all that appeared to be in the room were a radio, a small table and a toilet.

Doc and Marty exchanged worried glances.

"I've got a bad feeling about this, Doc." Marty murmured.

"So do I," Doc sighed. "We don't know what's down there or how we'll be able to deal with it if there's anything harmful. But we don't have a choice. If we want to get the DeLorean fixed, we need to try and find some spare parts,"

Marty nodded, then looked back at the pile of clothes they'd left behind. "What about that lot?"

"I suppose we can always come back for that later," Doc replied. "If not, it shouldn't be too hard to replace."

"Right…" Marty sighed. He didn't feel particularly enthusiastic about leaving his wallet, with all his cards and details, there. But Wheatley had said they'd be destroyed by some sort of grid. Leaving them here in one piece was better than letting them get destroyed. He looked down at the glass room.

"We've gotta jump in there, don't we?"

"I'm afraid so," Doc replied.

Marty looked at him. "One,"

"Two," Doc said.

"Three!"

Simultaneously, both of them jumped forwards. The glass smashed and they broke through into the new, unfamiliar testing track.


	3. First testing chambers

" _Good morning, and welcome to the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Centre. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties in circumstances of possibly apocalyptic significance beyond our control. However, thanks to emergency testing protocols, testing can continue. These pre-recorded messages can provide support so that testing can still be done, even in the event of an environmental, social, economic or structural collapse. The portal will open and testing will continue in 3...2...1…"_

Their attention was drawn to the white panel on one wall, where an orange, oval-shaped hole had appeared. Through it, Marty noticed that the scenery was that of across the other side of the room, not just the other side of the wall. He took a step through it.

He could see Doc still standing in the glass box, his back to him. "Hey, Doc! Check this out!"

Doc turned around to see that Marty was on the other side of the room. He looked back at the portal with an expression of shock. "Great Scott…"

Marty stuck his head back through the portal. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here,"

The scientist chuckled but followed Marty out anyway. They both headed over to a circular door with the same blue-stick-man logo on it as the last one. The door slid open, revealing another small room. A huge red button lay on the floor with a string of small blue dots leading towards another door. Some sort of dispenser unit hung from the ceiling at the other end of the small room.

" _Cube-and-button-based testing remains an important tool for science, even in a dire emergency. If cube and button-based testing caused this emergency, don't worry. The odds of this happening twice are very slim."_

Marty stood on the button and the door slid open. Doc walked through, but as Marty went to walk through after him, he got off the button and the door slid shut.

"Marty," Doc called through the door. "You need to put something on the button to hold it down."

As he said this, the dispenser dropped a large cube. It was about two foot in size and made a large _clunk_ as it landed on the floor. Marty picked it up, staggering under its weight a little. It was fairly heavy. He put the cube on top of the button and the door opened, staying open this time. Marty walked through the door and joined his friend.

The door slid shut behind them as another one opened. Within that door was a blue shield of some sort (Marty assumed that was the grid-thingy Wheatley had mentioned earlier). The pair walked through and were met with a cylindrical elevator, identical to the one that had first brought them here. It was a tight space; clearly it had only been designed for one person at a time. They squeezed in and the door shut, carrying them downwards towards another room.

The male announcer came back. " _You have just passed through an Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, which vapourises most Aperture Science equipment that touches it."_

"That must be what Wheatley was talking about earlier," Doc said. "Thank goodness we were okay,"

"Yeah," Marty replied. "And thank God Wheatley told us to change, otherwise our clothes may have been destroyed too,"

Doc chuckled. "That would have taken some explanation,"

Marty laughed. The elevator soon came to a stop on another floor and the doors slid open. As soon as they stepped out, the announcer spoke. " _If you feel liquid running down your neck, relax, lie on you back and apply immediate pressure to your temples. You are simply experiencing a rare reaction where the Material Emancipation Grill may have emancipated the ear tubes inside your head,"_

Marty gulped. "Geeze, that doesn't sound good,"

Doc shook his head and started heading up the metal staircase towards the door. It slid open and another chamber was revealed. Three separate glass rooms surrounded the edges of the room while three buttons stood next to their corresponding glass rooms. Vines hung down from the ceiling and the entire room seemed to have a lot of moss growing on it. The scientist pressed one button, causing a blue portal to open up inside one of the rooms. In that room lay a cube.

"We've got to press these buttons separately," Doc pointed out, gesturing to the orange portal on the wall behind him. "That one is obviously in a fixed place, but the others can be moved. Grab the cube and meet me back here,"

Marty nodded, stepping through the orange portal and collecting the cube. He returned as Doc opened up the second portal, allowing Marty to walk through and place the cube down on a button. The door in the third glass room slid open, and once Marty was back in the main chamber, Doc pressed the final button and both of them left.

" _Good. Because of the technical difficulties we are currently experiencing, your test environment is unsupervised. Before reentering a relaxation vault at the conclusion of testing, please take a moment to write down the results of your test. An Aperture Science re-integration associate will revive you for an interview when society has been rebuilt."_

"This sounds like an apocalypse alright," Doc murmured, frowning. "Hopefully whatever caused this mess is long gone."

Marty nodded, sighing. "This is heavy…"

The pair got into the elevator and the door slid shut. Marty hoped that the elevators weren't all this tiny - he didn't fancy the idea of being squished into Doc's chest every time they moved from one room to the next. Sure he and Doc had hugged each other before, but this was too close for comfort.

Eventually, the lift arrived at their next destination and they were greeted by the same male announcer. " _If the Earth is currently being governed by some form of animal king, sentient cloud, or another form of governing body that either refuses to or is incapable of listening to reason-"_

Strangely, the pre-recorded message died at that point. The pair shrugged and followed the corridor round a corner, revealing a wall that had some sizeable gaps in it. A whirring sound could be heard before Wheatley slid back into view.

"Wahey! You made it!" He cheered.

"It wasn't that hard, you know," Marty pointed out.

"Still, well done!" Wheatley replied, lifting his lower optic shield in a way that made him look as though he was grinning. "The portal device should be on that podium over there,"

Doc looked around into the room. Sure enough, there was a stand in the centre of the room. The floor around it was cracked and looked dangerous. Marty grinned and went over to have a look.

"Marty! Wait!" Doc called, reaching a hand out to grab his friend, but he was too late.

The floor collapsed beneath Marty's feet, sending him falling down through the ground.

"Woah!" Wheatley called, noticing as the floor gave way and Marty vanished.

Marty let out a scream as he fell. He looked down to see that the floor was coming up very fast to meet him. He looked at the boots on his feet. "Here goes nothing…" he murmured.

With a splash, he landed on the ground, successfully, on his feet. The momentum caused him to fall over, but at least, he was okay.

"Great Scott! Marty! Are you alright?!" Doc shouted down the hole, looking over the edge.

"Yeah! These boots actually work!" Marty shouted back. "It's really wet down here, though, so just be careful,"

"Right," Doc took a deep breath and jumped down. Three seconds later, he landed beside Marty in the shallow pool. The water was brown and stagnant, but at least, it wasn't deep. He landed much more gracefully than his teenage friend had, bending his knees as he landed and staying on his feet.

Marty got up. He was soaked from the waist downwards from where he had fallen over, but he was unhurt. Doc began heading down the passage, Marty walking beside him.

"Geeze, that scared the shit out of me," Marty shuddered.

"Believe me, I was shocked too," Doc said. "I don't know how I would have explained that one to your parents if you got hurt,"

Marty sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Thank goodness these boots work, though,"

"I have a feeling we'll need to use those a lot around here,"

"Hello?" Wheatley's voice echoed around them, coming from some unseen source. "Can you see the portal gun?"

As they rounded the corner, some white steps led up to a podium, where a white and blue device lay. Doc walked up the steps and picked the gun up, looking it over in his hands.

White panels surrounded the room with strange paintings on them. Several small figures stood around a huge piece of machinery on one, and on another was a much clearer painting of two people. The taller one had white hair, the shorter one had brown. Marty had a closer look and noticed that the paintings looked like him and Doc.

"Hey Doc, look at this," he called, and the scientist promptly walked over to look.

"My word, they look an awful lot like us," he murmured.

Marty nodded. "It's probably a coincidence, though,"

Doc shook his head and pointed to something in the background, something that, due to his height, Marty hadn't noticed before. "Look, that looks like the DeLorean,"

Marty stood on the tips of his toes and had a look. "Oh my God… you don't think this is about us, do you?"

"Could be," Doc murmured but shook his head. "Best not to dwell on it. Let's just get out of here,"

Marty nodded. Doc pointed the gun towards the wall and fired. A blue portal appeared on the wall and the pair stepped through it, dropping down onto another platform.

"Are you two alive down there?"

"Yeah!" Marty shouted. "We're fine! We've got the gun!"

"Great!" Wheatley shouted. "I'll meet you up ahead!"

The pair walked across the broken walkways and into what looked like an abandoned office. Broken computers and other office equipment lay around the floor and vines grew in from the ceiling. Once they entered another testing chamber, the announcer's pre-recorded messages began playing again.

" _Some emergency testing may require prolonged interaction with lethal military androids. Rest assured that all lethal military androids have been taught to read and have been provided with one copy of the Laws of Robotics to share."_

"Oh yeah, that's _really_ reassuring," Marty said sarcastically.

Doc laughed, before placing a portal on one wall and walking through. Marty joined him and the scientist placed another portal beside the door. The pair walked back through the orange one and through the exit.

" _Good,_ " The announcer said as they passed through the door and towards the elevator. " _If you feel as though a lethal military android has not respected your rights as detailed in the Laws of Robotics, please note it on your self-reporting form. A future Aperture Science associate will produce the appropriate apology paperwork."_

Marty sighed. "Great, at least we know we'll get an apology if some robot decides to kill us,"

Doc chuckled. "We should be fine,"

The elevator descended and the door slid open. Once again, Marty and Doc were squashed in the tight space. Doc held the gun above his head as to make a bit more room for Marty, but it wasn't much. When the elevator stopped again, Marty got out and flattened his hair down.

"I really hope these elevators get bigger at some point,"

The pair continued to make their way through the tests, noticing how they became increasingly difficult as time went on. Toxic pools of brown water became an obstacle, as did throwing themselves across a room by jumping into a portal. They had to stick together - Doc was operating the gun (Marty had insisted it be him as the scientist was more capable of solving the logic-based tests) so Marty had to jump when he jumped, move when he moved etc.

Entering another room, Marty noticed Wheatley was there waiting for them, hanging from his rail.

"Hey!" The robot called. "You made it! And you did find the portal gun! Great!"

Marty shrugged. "It wasn't too difficult to be honest,"

"Those tests are really simple,"

"They get harder, believe me," Wheatley said. "Now, put a portal on that wall behind me and come on up 'ere!"

Doc did so, and soon the pair were standing on the same platform above which Wheatley was hanging.

"Right, I gotta tell you something, it's pretty heavy,"

"That's my line," Marty muttered, to which Doc laughed.

"They told me that if I ever disengaged myself from this management rail, that I would die!" Wheatley exclaimed. "But I'm afraid we've got no choice here. So you'd better catch me, alright?"

Marty nodded and stepped forward until he was underneath the core, his arms out in front of him.

"On the count of three. One," Wheatley simulated taking a deep breath. "Two, three!"

Marty had expected the core to fall, but instead he swung backwards. "That's too high," the robot said. "It's really too high! Alright, three just gives me too much time to think about it. I'm gonna go on one, okay?"

"Okay, I'm ready," Marty nodded, making sure he was in a suitable position to catch him. "Go on,"

"Alright, one!" Wheatley fell from the rail and landed in the teenager's arms. He was quite a bit heavier than Marty had expected and the teenager staggered back before falling onto his backside.

Wheatley had his optic shut tight in what could only be assumed as fear. He opened it slowly to find that Marty had indeed caught him. "I.. am … not dead! I'm not dead!"

"You seem fine to me," Doc replied. "Now what?"

"See that port on the wall over there?" Wheatley gestured to a wall as Marty got to his feet. Sure enough, some sort of receptacle was there. "Plug me in there,"

Marty placed the core into the port and after Wheatley had asked them to turn around ("I can't do it with you watching, seriously!") a panel opened up, revealing a hidden walkway.

Wheatley rolled out of the port and onto the floor, where he was picked up again by Marty. "Let's go!"

The trio headed through the gap between the panels and down the walkway, going deeper within Aperture.


	4. The incinerator room

"This is brilliant!" Wheatley chirped for the eighth time.

"So we've been told," Marty replied. "Where are we even going?"

"Keep following the path," Wheatley swung around in his chassis to have a look in the direction they were going. "Yep, just keep -"

" _Hello..?"_

"- oh no," Wheatley groaned. In a huge glass tube lay another of those white things (Marty and Doc had been told they were known as "turrets"), its laser was flickering on and off.

" _I'm different,"_

Marty stopped, leaning over the railing and putting his face to the glass.

"Keep moving, don't make eye contact!" Wheatley yelped. "Just keep going!"

Marty shrugged and continued walking along the path. Doc looked over his shoulder at the turret. "What's it doing in there?"

"That one keeps popping up around the facility at odd moments," Wheatley said. "Ignore it, it's broken,"

Marty looked over his shoulder at it again. "It doesn't look broken to me,"

"Well, it is," Wheatley said hurriedly as if avoiding the subject. "Keep moving,"

The robot went quiet, something he hadn't done in a while. That didn't last long, though, as soon he spoke again. "I need to tell you guys something. In order to escape, we have to go through… _her_ chamber. If she's awake, she'll probably kill us,"

Marty gulped. "Oh great,"

Doc stopped walking and looked around the corner of the door, into what was possibly the largest chamber they'd seen so far. Lying in the middle, covered with foliage, was a huge robot. Thick wires led up into the ceiling and the main sections lay abandoned on the ground. "Seems safe to me,"

Marty followed the scientist in and Wheatley immediately began to panic. "No no no don't go in there don't - she's off, she's off it's okay." The robot simulated a sigh of relief. "What a nasty piece of work she was."

Now that he was closer, Marty could see just how big this robot was. She had a huge "head" with a large optic, her chassis was large and overall she appeared to be about forty foot long. She certainly did look formidable and Marty was just glad that she wasn't awake. Warped and broken pieces of metal scaffolding lay around her, indicating that it had once stood around her when she was active.

Doc walked around to the back of the room and round the corner, Marty following behind, until they came to another set of walkways. Down the steps, Doc stopped. The stairs had fallen apart and a huge drop now stood in front of them. Taking a deep breath, the scientist jumped down.

"Now, please, whatever you do don't drop me when you jump-AAH!" Wheatley yelled out as Marty jumped down after his friend. He kept a tight grip on the robot, for which Wheatley was clearly thankful.

"Good job, I'm still being held!"

As they came across another walkway, Wheatley looked downwards and yelled, causing Marty to jump. "Sorry, I just looked down. I don't recommend it,"

Marty rolled his eyes, but jumped again when Wheatley shouted a second time. The core told him he'd just looked down again and the teenager sighed. This robot clearly didn't seem like the brightest and Marty was beginning to wonder if he was doing it on purpose. Surely an AI couldn't be _this_ much of a moron?

Soon they approached a circular room with another port in the centre of it. Hundreds of switches lined the walls and Marty craned his neck to try and read some.

"Now, we're looking for a switch that says 'escape pod'," Wheatley said as he too looked around. "Tell you what, plug me in and I'll turn on the lights,"

Marty put him into the receptacle and sure enough, the lights came on. The door also slammed shut, yet again shutting Doc and Marty in a space much too small for both of them at once. They ended up with their backs pressed against each other.

"Let there be light!" Wheatley said cheerfully. "I was quoting God there,"

Marty looked around at the switches again. "I still can't see anything,"

All of a sudden, the receptacle Wheatley was in turned round. "Oh ... Well, hmm well as long as we don't start moving,"

He spoke too soon. The whole base of the circular room began to rise, each and every switch on the wall being turned on. "Oh bloody hell, maybe this will make it stop!"

The robot twisted around in the receptacle, but the floor only went up faster. "Nope, that makes it go faster,"

"Nice going there," Doc remarked sarcastically.

A hole in the ceiling opened up, revealing the main chamber they were in a couple of minutes ago.

"Power up initiated," the announcer said.

Wheatley started frantically shifting around in the receptacle. "There's gotta be a password! ... A!"

A buzzer sounded, indicating that that wasn't the correct password. Marty and Doc watched as the huge robot (which, according to the text painted on the top of it, was named GLaDOS) began shifting and rising, pieces of leaves and twigs falling to the ground.

" B!"

Buzz

Marty gulped as the larger robot seemed to become more and more active.

"Power up complete"

The robot turned its head to face the newcomers and Marty could see that its optic was a bright yellow. "Oh, hello,"

By the tone of her voice, Marty could tell that this wasn't a friendly greeting at all. "Uh... Hi?"

"You two are new, aren't you?" GLaDOS swung her chassis downwards to observe the pair closer. "My scanners indicate that you two don't belong here,"

"No, we don't," Doc replied. "We were looking for some spare parts to fix our car,"

"So you were here to dismantle me, and you dragged this little core with you?"

"No!" Marty threw his hands in the air. "We just want to get our car fixed and get out of here!"

"Car? There have been no functioning cars around here for thousands of years," GLaDOS replied. "Clearly you are delusional,"

"We're not!" Marty shouted. "Our damn time machine landed us here,"

"Marty," Doc muttered. "You're not helping the situation,"

"A time machine?" GLaDOS emitted a robotic laugh. "You clearly are brain damaged,"

From the ceiling, three claws descended towards them. Each claw fastened itself around a newcomer and lifted them into the air. Wheatley was torn from the receptacle and hoisted up too. He was panicking.

"No no no no no!" The claw tightened around him, causing part of his casing to break. The other two claws also tightened around the two humans and Doc dropped the portal gun. Wheatley fell silent.

"Now, I'm sure we can put this matter to rest," GLaDOS said in a fake voice of sweetness. The claw holding Wheatley crushed him completely. His optic dimmed and he was tossed aside.

Marty reached a hand out as if to attempt to grab the core. "No!"

"There's just one little thing we need to take care of first," The two claws pulled the two humans over to where a shaft in the floor was opening. Marty couldn't see the bottom, but he didn't have to as the claws dropped the pair of them down the chute.

The hatch closed above them as Doc and Marty were sent sliding through the pipes downwards, much further into Aperture than they had been before. Marty frantically tried to grab something to stop himself falling any further, but the smooth metal offered no grip. He was yelling and crying out.

"Marty!" Doc shouted and the teenager looked over at him. "Calm down!"

Marty gulped. "We don't know where this place leads! Wheatley's dead and now we're stuck here!"

"It's not an ideal situation," Doc replied. "But just try and keep calm,"

Marty nodded. Soon, the bottom of the chute approached them, as did an intense amount of heat. Luckily, they had landed on a platform built into the side, but that didn't mean that they were entirely out of harm's way.

"This is an incinerator," Doc murmured, standing back up straight. Marty came sliding to a stop beside him and he too got up. Fear was clearly evident on his face.

"Oh God… oh God…" he murmured. His hands were shaking.

Doc put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. As long as we're careful, we should be alright,"

Marty nodded and began to follow the scientist along the pathway.

"Here we are," GLaDOS's voice echoed around them, coming from a speaker. "The incinerator room. Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that weren't completely destroyed when _she_ threw me down here,"

Doc cast Marty a sideways glance as he ducked beneath pipes. Various pieces of equipment fell into the burning pit below, including some cubes and a turret, Marty felt a chill go through him as he heard the turret's anguished scream as it fell.

"The Dual Portal Device should be up ahead. Once you get it, we can start testing. Unfortunately, there's only one on offer. You'll have to share. I would put the weaker one of you back into the Extended Relaxation Centre, but the reserve power ran out, so I'm afraid you would die. Such a shame, isn't it?"

Doc fought back the urge to respond. He had a feeling that if they talked back to this robot too much, she might hurt them, or worse, separate them.

Marty stumbled over a piece of rubble and automatically put his hands out to stop himself falling. The hot metal he landed on burned his skin and he let out a cry of pain.

Doc stopped and helped him up. "Are you alright?"

Marty winced, looking at the red blisters now forming across his palms. "Yeah, my hands just really freaking hurt,"

Doc took one of Marty's hands in his own, looking it over carefully. He ran the fingers of his other hand over Marty's skin and the teenager yelped.

"H-hey!"

"Sorry. You've got some nasty burns, you'll need to run them under cold water at some point, then get them bandaged." Doc said, beginning to lead Marty further along the path.

Marty kept his arms close to him as he followed Doc along the pathway of broken metal. Up ahead, he spotted another of those gun-looking devices lying beneath some rubble.

"One moment," GLaDOS said. "I wouldn't recommend touching that. It's very hot, as your juvenile friend just discovered."

The panels moved, lifting up the rubble and allowing Doc to grab the gun. The gun itself was warm but not enough to burn.

"Good, you have the Dual Portal Device. There should be a way back to the testing rooms up ahead,"

Doc looked up through a gap in the wall and fired the gun. A blue portal appeared on the ceiling. He fired the gun a second time at the wall beside them and an orange one appeared. He gestured for Marty to follow him through.

The pair dropped to the floor safely out of the incinerator room. The walls here were white but years of neglect had caused grime and dirt to accumulate on them. Broken pieces of metal still lay around on the floor, gradually rusting away.

They came to a blocked wall and Doc fired a portal on either side of the blockage, allowing them to pass through.

"Once testing begins," said GLaDOS. "I'm required by protocol to keep interaction with you to a minimum, Luckily, we haven't started testing yet."

 _Oh joy,_ Marty thought. _Here we go…_


	5. Escape

Marty really hated this robot.

She led them through test after test, chamber after chamber, ending each one with another narrow elevator. She often ranted about her previous test subject, the one that had killed her, talking about how she would love to get revenge on her. It was starting to get repetitive.

In one of the previous chambers, where they'd had to retrieve a cube from a blocked-off room, Marty could have sworn he'd seen Wheatley peek out from behind a panel. He'd blinked and the core was gone. The teenager shrugged it off, remembering that there were probably other robots around this place that looked just like him. Although when the Aerial Faith Plates had been introduced, he _knew_ he'd seen Wheatley hiding behind some panels.

The teenager's least favourite obstacle at the moment was the Thermal Discouragement Beam. He'd burned off all the skin on his shins, forming painful blisters, not unlike the ones on his hands. Whatever had compelled the scientists who built this place to create those beams, he'd never know.

Something strange had happened, though. As they'd walked towards another chamber, they'd found a broken water pipe sticking out of a wall, pouring out fresh, clean, filtered water. The water was then drained through an open panel. A roll of clean bandages was resting beside the stream of water and Doc had been able to clean Marty's hands and legs and wrap them with bandages. GLaDOS confessed that she had no idea where the supplies had come from but allowed them to use the bandages to wrap up Marty's burns anyway.

As they approached a door leading into a chamber, the door frame started sparking and the door slammed shut. "Perfect," GLaDOS groaned. "The door's malfunctioning. I'll be right back,"

The speaker went quiet for a little bit and Doc leant against the wall to catch his breath. He wasn't the fittest person in the world and these tests were beginning to take their toll on him.. "Man, I never thought these tests could be that difficult,"

"Neither did I," Marty replied. "But you seem to be doing a much better job than I'd be able to,"

"Mostly, they're a simple matter of logic...and trying not to get killed," Doc said.

Marty sighed. "This isn't going to be easy, is it?"

"I'm afraid not," Doc sighed.

The teenager groaned, running a hand through his hair. He was in dire need of a shower - they both were. "Great..."

"Oi oi!" A familiar British shout came from a window at the top of one wall. "I'm up 'ere!"

Marty looked up and gasped. "Wheatley?!"

"The very same!" The core said cheerfully. "I found some bird eggs up here and chucked them into the door mechanism! Shut it right down!"

"That doesn't sound like the best idea," Doc said, although he was thrilled that the core was okay.

A crow flew into the small room and promptly began pecking at Wheatley. The core yelped and started moving left and right along the rail, trying to get the bird to leave. Once it did, he came back.

"That must have been the bird that laid the eggs! Absolutely livid!"

"Well you did throw its unborn children into the door mechanics," Doc pointed out.

"Yeah, I suppose. Listen, she's coming back. We're gonna break out of here soon, I promise. I just gotta figure out how," Wheatley looked around. "Look, just keep testing and remember: You never saw me!"

"Right," Marty nodded.

"Well, there we go," GLaDOS said as the door slid open, revealing another chamber. "Back to testing."

As Doc placed the two portals so they could jump onto the hard-light bridge, Marty noticed something in the ceiling. A white panel. "Hey Doc, look up there,"

Doc looked to where Marty was pointing. He hummed in thought before placing a portal up there and going through. Once Marty followed him in, they began to look around. They appeared to be surrounded by ventilation ducts. The teenager walked around the corner to see a painting on the wall, similar to the one they'd seen when they picked up the first portal device.

"That's strange…" Marty murmured, seeing the word 'unmorality' painted on the wall.

Doc frowned but decided they had better get back to "testing". "Come on, let's go,"

Marty nodded and followed him back out. They continued to complete the tests, occasionally coming across more of those strange paintings. GLaDOS seemed oblivious to the fact they were there or otherwise ignored their presence completely. They couldn't be gone too long - they still had to find enough spare parts to fix the DeLorean. They managed to pick up odd pieces here and there but it didn't seem like it would be enough. It turned out that those turrets contained little pieces of machinery that they would be able to use, so they pocketed any parts they could get.

Entering a testing chamber, the pair were shocked to realise that the room was pitch black. The door slammed shut behind them, engulfing them in darkness.

"Initiating surprise in 3…"

Doc pulled Marty close, not trusting GLaDOS not to give them a turret as a 'surprise'.

"2…1…" The lights came on, revealing an empty office with a tube leading in from the ceiling. "I made it all up. Surprise!"

Confetti fell from the tube and Doc sighed, heading towards the broken windows where the actual test was.

They completed the test and were just walking across the hard-light bridge towards the exit when GLaDOS started talking again. "I feel awful about that surprise. Tell you what, Marty, I'll give your parents a call right now,"

Despite himself, Marty's hopes rose. The sound of a phone dial tone came out the speakers, soon followed by what sounded like his father's. "I'm sorry, son, but we don't love you. Please hang up."

Although he knew it was a trick, Marty couldn't help but feel a stab of pain at that. "Hey, that's not fair!"

"It's perfectly fair," GLaDOS replied.

Doc growled and grabbed Marty's arm, pulling him out of the room. He stopped before they reached the elevator. "Don't listen to her, Marty. She was specifically programmed to be horrible. She's doing it because she knows it'll upset you,"

"Yeah, I know, Doc." Marty sighed, kicking his feet over the floor.

Doc patted his shoulder and lead him towards the elevator. The journey was yet again cramped but the scientist kept an arm around Marty this time. "We'll get out of here, I promise."

Marty nodded, a look of determination coming onto his face. "Right,"

Doc grinned. "That's the spirit!"

As the lift descended, they heard Wheatley's voice again. "Hey! How's it going?" The core was sliding down a vertical management rail alongside the elevator.

Marty grinned. "Not too bad I suppose,"

"At least, your hands are all wrapped up now, eh?" The core lifted his lower optic shield in a grin. "I talked my way onto the ol' nanobot work crew rebuilding the shaft. They said that-" Some faint static came from Wheatley's communicator and he began having a conversation with someone else.

"Yeah I know Jerry, I'm on a break mate!"

Doc chuckled. "Troublesome co-workers?"

Wheatley laughed. "Yeah. Listen, just hang in there for five more-"

Another round of static cut him off. "What?! Oh come on Jerry, you can't fire me for that!" More static. "Yes, Jerry, or maybe your prejudice worksite should have accommodated a nanobot of my size! Thanks for the hate crime, Jer, see you in court mate!"

Marty laughed. "You tell him!"

Wheatley chuckled. "Just hang in there for five more chambers!"

"Will do," Doc nodded. "Good luck!"

The elevator disappeared downwards and Wheatley vanished from view. Marty sighed in relief. "We might actually be able to get out of here soon,"

"Hopefully," Doc nodded. "That 'adrenal vapour' isn't working very well,"

"No, it's not," Marty sighed. He was exhausted.

Marty was counting the chambers they went through. Wheatley had said that there would be five before he could break them out.

"I have a surprise for you after this next test," GLaDOS said as they entered another chamber. "Not a fake, tragic surprise like last time."

"Great," Marty groaned. If it was anything like the last one, he was dreading it. The last thing he needed was a turret, or an insult, or a Thermal Discouragement Beam, or any other unpleasant object that AI called a "surprise".

Doc placed some portals so that they were able to walk across a hard-light bridge and press a button. Marty walked in front, going to collect a cube, when the power went out. They fell from the hard-light and hit the floor. The lucky timing meant that neither of them ended up in the acidic pool that had been beneath them.

"What's going on?! Who turned out the lights?!" GLaDOS could be heard trying to find the source of the commotion.

A panel at the side of the test chamber opened up, revealing Wheatley hanging from a management rail. "Hey buddy," he said, badly imitating a different accent. "I'm speaking in an accent that is beyond her range of hearing!"

"Look, Metalball," GLaDOS sighed. "I _can_ hear you,"

"Run!" Wheatley yelled and another panel opened. The hard-light bridge allowed the pair to walk across to a metal walkway. "I don't have to do the voice! Just run!"

Doc and Marty wasted no time in running across the bridge as the panel shut behind them. They followed Wheatley along the pathway, running as fast as they could.

"Quick update!" Wheatley said. "We're escaping. That's what's happening now! We're escaping! Future plans are this! We need to shut down her turret production line, turn off the neurotoxin and then confront her!"

Marty nodded, grabbing Doc's hand and pulling him along faster. "Got it!"

"Just keep running!" Wheatley shouted.

"What's ironic is that you were almost at the last test," GLaDOS said. "In fact, here it is. Why don't you just do it? See, I've already completed it for you!"

A set of panels opened up, revealing a hard-light bridge, a doorway obscured by leaves and a cube resting on a button. Marty considered going towards it.

Doc pulled him in the opposite direction. "Don't! It's a trap, she's trying to kill us!"

Marty could have slapped himself for his own stupidity. "Right,"

They ran across the hard-light bridge in the opposite direction to the "test chamber". The bridge disappeared once the panels shut and the pair fell. Luckily, they landed on a walkway. Wheatley followed them down along his management rail.

"Oh, how stupid does she think we are?!" He laughed. "Honestly!"

Marty chuckled. "We're not gullible either,"

Doc gave him a look. "You were,"

Marty went red. "Yeah, I suppose so. Should have known,"

"Don't worry about it," Doc replied. "Let's just keep moving."

Marty nodded but slowed his pace down a little. He eventually slowed down to a walk, panting. Doc stopped to catch his breath and the pair had a moment to allow their lungs to recover. Wheatley waited impatiently above them.

"You humans and your breathing."

Marty shot him an annoyed look. "We can't help it, you know,"

Wheatley shifted a little as if to shrug. Once the two humans had caught their breath, they kept going. Wheatley led them round the corner and further along the maze of walkways. This place seemed to extend for miles downwards and Doc was beginning to wonder what price this place cost to construct.

None of that mattered at the moment. What mattered was getting out of harm's way before GLaDOS could find them… and kill them.


	6. The Oracle Turret

Wheatley led them around the corner and onto a platform. "Come on!"

Marty and Doc jumped down onto it and began running, following Wheatley to the other side. All of a sudden, the panels around the platform closed, trapping them in a box.

"Oh no, we've got to get you out of there!" Wheatley shouted.

Doc ran around the side of a pipe, past a turret. Its laser didn't land on Doc in time, but it _did_ land on Marty.

Marty let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground, just out of the turret's view. Doc looked over at him and gasped. The teenager had his right hand firmly gripping his left forearm. Upon closer inspection, the scientist noticed that Marty was bleeding. "Great Scott…"

Wheatley slid along his management rail back towards the pair. "What happened?!"

"Marty's been shot!" Doc shouted. He knelt beside the teenager and carefully took his injured arm into his lap.

Marty winced. "Ow!"

"Sorry," Doc frowned. He reached into the pocket of the jumpsuit and took out the roll of bandages that thankfully hadn't been destroyed by the Emancipation Grid. "Take your hand off your arm,"

Marty nodded and carefully removed his hand. He flinched but managed to take his hand away, revealing a sizeable bullet wound with the culprit still embedded in him. The teenager couldn't look at his arm; it made him gag. Doc managed to use some of the bandaging to pull the bullet out, causing Marty to yelp again.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, but I need to do this. You need to take off the top half of this jumpsuit,"

Marty nodded and began trying to tug the garment off him, letting out yet another yelp. Doc helped him and soon the top half of the jumpsuit was resting around Marty's waist. Doc then began to bandage up Marty's arm.

Once his arm was securely bandaged, Marty tied the sleeves of the jumpsuit around his waist to stop them getting caught in anything. He got back to his feet and Doc looked him over. "Are you alright?"

"I think so," Marty nodded. "We'd better get these turrets disabled,"

Doc nodded and walked carefully around the corner, kicking one turret over before ducking back behind the pipe to avoid the turret's frantic shots. Marty kicked over the second one and Doc picked up the third, throwing it across the platform.

"Up here!" Wheatley shouted. Doc spotted a white panel beyond the room they were trapped in and placed a portal on it. He put a second on the wall beside him and he and Marty stepped through, out of harm's way for the time being.

"You're okay!" Wheatley cheered, leading them down another set of walkways. "Come on!"

Marty and Doc followed him and Marty briefly wondered if all of Aperture was built like this. It certainly seemed like it, from what he'd seen. They came across another turret, which Doc quickly disposed of by firing a portal underneath it.

The core led them up a set of stairs and across another walkway. Pieces of metal and scaffolding began falling down, cutting off their access to some parts of the walkway.

"RUN!" Wheatley hollered. "She's bringing the whole place down! Hurry!"

Marty grabbed Doc's hand and pulled him in the direction of another elevator. Both humans were sprinting at this point. Doc's legs burned and Marty's lungs ached but the falling pieces of building made them run faster.

"Get in the lift! Get in the lift!" Wheatley shouted frantically. The pair managed to get into the elevator just as a moving wall blocked off the rest of the walkway.

"Phew! We made it!" Wheatley called. He was on the management rail above their heads. "I'll meet you up ahead!" He disappeared down a passage and Doc and Marty were left to catch their breath as the elevator slowly ascended.

"Are you okay?" Marty asked, noticing that Doc was still panting heavily.

"I… I'm fine," Doc gasped, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "I'm not as young as I used to be; I haven't run like that in ages,"

"Neither have I," Marty replied, sliding down the wall and sitting cross-legged on the floor. Doc joined him, his long legs sprawled out across the base of the elevator. They stayed like that for a few minutes after the elevator had arrived, allowing themselves to relax and get their energy back.

They got to their feet and followed the passage along, going at a steady walk this time. They passed through a set of doors and came out onto a metal walkway.

"Brilliant!" Marty looked up to see Wheatley on his management rail above them. "Right, follow me. There's still work to do, but at least, she can't touch us back here,"

Marty sighed in relief. "Good,"

Their relief was short-lived, however, as the lights began to go out. Soon, the entire area was engulfed in blackness.

"Right, umm, okay. Don't move," Wheatley said. "I've got an idea, but it is _bloody_ dangerous. Hold on,"

Doc kept an arm around Marty's shoulders, not entirely sure what this "bloody dangerous" plan of Wheatley's was. He didn't need to, because soon a bright flashlight came on, being emitted from the core's optic.

"Oh for God's sake," Wheatley sighed. "They told me that if I ever turned this flashlight on, I would die! They told me that about everything!"

Doc chuckled. "Well you seem fine,"

"Yeah! And I feel fine!" Wheatley exclaimed, beginning to slide along his management rail, illuminating a path for the pair to follow. "I don't know why they bothered giving me this stuff if they didn't want me to use it. It's pointless!"

Marty laughed, keeping close to Doc as they walked along the pathways. It was really dark and he couldn't see a thing beyond what Wheatley's flashlight lit up.

"Oooh, it's dark down here ain't it?" Wheatley murmured. "They said the old caretaker of this place went insane and chopped up his entire staff,"

Marty went pale. "Wh-what?"

"Of robots," Wheatley added, shuddering. "They say at night, you can still hear the screams… of their replicas. No memory of the incident, nobody knows what they're screaming about,"

"Was this the same group of people who told you that you would die if you ever used your flashlight?" Doc asked.

"Yeah, it was," Wheatley replied. "It's probably nonsense,"

The pair climbed onto a broken down conveyor belt covered in broken turret parts. Wheatley guided them down it and towards another walkway. This place was a little too eerie for Marty's comfort. They had no idea what sort of thing could be lurking down here. For all they knew, there could be an army of turrets waiting for them just around the corner.

A turret production line was up ahead. Laser beams cut out parts from large templates before the pieces were taken off down another conveyor belt. Doc and Marty looked over the edge.

"Hold on, let me hold the light steady," Wheatley replied. He hung on the rail just above where the pair would have to jump down to. "Careful,"

Doc jumped down first, safely making it past the lasers and onto another platform. "Come on Marty! Just be careful!"

"Okay," Marty called, although his tone of voice indicated that he was pretty nervous. He took a deep breath and jumped.

 _ **CLUNK**_

He landed safely on the production line and avoided the lasers, soon joining Doc on the platform. The scientist clapped him on the shoulder. "Well done,"

Marty grinned and kept walking. "Still got the portal gun?"

"Yep," Doc held it up. "You know, when we get out of here, I might keep it,"

"They don't work outside Aperture," Wheatley said. "They only work on special moon rock surfaces,"

"Damn, I was hoping I could have a portal in my garage and one in my house so I wouldn't have to keep walking back and forth."

"Think about it Doc. You could still use the bathroom without having to leave the living room," Marty suggested.

Doc laughed. "Trust you to think of something like that,"

Wheatley laughed. "Come on, we're not far away now. You know what? I almost got a job down here in manufacturing, but guess who the foreman went with?"

"Biff Tannen?" Marty suggested.

"Only an exact copy of himself. Asshole. I ended up getting the worst possible job; tending to all the smelly humans!"

"You'd stink too if you were forced to run tests for three days straight without a single shower!" Doc protested.

"Sorry, that sort of slipped out," Wheatley mumbled, looking away. "Just the humans, really. Still a rotten job,"

Doc rolled his eyes and placed a couple of portals, allowing him and Marty to reach a room. Wheatley lit up a couple more panels and Doc fired there too. Once they'd made it through, Wheatley tried to make up for the little "smelly humans" incident.

"Tell you what, humans? Love 'em! The way they look, the colourful folklore,"

"You know you're just digging yourself into a deeper hole," Marty pointed out.

Wheatley looked embarrassed. "Sorry,"

As they rounded the corner, they came across a spiraling tube carrying cubes, turrets and other pieces of equipment that Marty didn't recognise. Doc jumped down onto part of the pipe and began following it downwards towards another room.

"Right, I'll see you at the bottom. Good luck!" Wheatley vanished down another passage.

"Great help he is," Marty muttered. He too jumped down and followed Doc down to the room. Once his feet were back on solid ground, he yawned.

Doc ended up yawning too. "I think we both need some sleep,"

Marty nodded, already beginning to feel drowsy. "Yeah, that adrenal vapour stuff was useless. I'm exhausted,"

"Let's, at least, keep going until we find Wheatley again," Doc replied. "Come on, it shouldn't be too long now."

Marty yawned but followed the scientist anyway. They passed through some more doors and soon came across another conveyor belt.

" _Turret redemption lines active. Please do not engage with turrets heading towards redemption."_

"We have to get across," Doc said. He placed a portal above the redemption line and another on the wall behind him. He passed through the portal and landed on the redemption line.

" _Turret redemption lines are not rides. Please exit the turret redemption line,"_

Doc hopped off the conveyor belt and onto a vent. He turned back towards Marty. "Come on! It's safe!"

"Coming!" Marty called. He walked through the portal, across the redemption line and joined Doc on the vent. They both jumped up onto the second redemption line and began walking across it.

A turret lay on the line, its broken laser still blinking. " _Help me. I'm different,"_

Doc ignored it and jumped down to another walkway, but Marty decided to pick it up.

" _Thank you,"_ said the turret happily. Marty followed Doc along the path.

"What did you pick that up for?" Doc looked at the turret in his friend's hands. Marty shrugged.

"It's not shooting you, is it?"

" _The answer is beneath us,"_

Marty blinked in confusion and looked at the turret. "What?"

" _Don't make lemonade,"_ Doc too looked at the turret.

" _Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man. He was cast into the bowels of the Earth and pecked by birds."_

Marty shrugged and yawned again. Doc looked at him. "Let's get some rest," he sat down on the floor and patted the space next to him, gesturing for Marty to sit down too. "I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if we just took a break."

"What if GLaDOS finds us?" Marty asked, although the idea of sleep did seem very inviting to him at the moment.

"She hasn't found us so far and I'm sure Wheatley can wake us up anyway," Doc replied, covering his mouth as he yawned again.

Marty sat down next to him, placing the turret down so its laser was pointed away from them, just in case.

" _Her name is Caroline,"_

"It's broken," Doc sighed. "Just leave it be,"

" _Get mad,"_

Marty laid against Doc's shoulder and began to drift off.

" _That's all I can say…"_

The turret went quiet and soon the pair passed out, the whirring and clunking of the surrounding machinery lulling them to sleep.

...

 **A/N: 6 chapters in two days? Woop!**


	7. Of Turrets and Neurotoxin

"Where have you two been?!" Wheatley exclaimed. "I was worried you'd died!"

"We fell asleep," Doc replied. "We've been doing those tests for ages and we were absolutely exhausted,"

Wheatley emitted a frustrated noise. "Suuuure, don't bother telling me if you just decide to have a nap!"

"Dude, calm down," Marty ran a hand through his hair. "We're fine. Let's just keep going,"

Wheatley lowered his upper optic shield a little but said nothing else. He led them into the office. "Check this out! It's the turret control centre!"

The room itself was rather small. A glass chamber stood off to one side. It contained a turret that was being scanned every so often. The conveyor belt they'd seen earlier carried turrets along which were evidently being compared to the one in the glass chamber. A repetition of _"_ Template _._ Response, _"_ came from a speaker every time a new turret came along. Marty was alarmed to see just how many turrets there were.

Every so often, a different turret came along. It appeared to be missing the white shell, showing only its black mainframe.

"It's using that master turret as a template," Wheatley explained. "So if we pull out the template turret, it should shut down her whole production line!"

Marty nodded. He began looking at the glass chamber, trying to find a way of accessing the turret within it. "I'm gonna have to hack the door," Wheatley said. He positioned himself on the rail just by the glass chamber. "Would you mind, uhh, just turning around?"

Marty snickered and whispered something in Doc's ear, causing the scientist to laugh. Wheatley looked confused. "What?"

"Nothing," the teenager said innocently, turning his back to the core. Once Doc did the same, Wheatley "hacked" the door open by smashing the glass. "Done!"

The pair turned around and gave Wheatley a look. The scientist shrugged and placed a portal either side of the glass, before stepping through and pulling the turret out.

 _"Template missing. Continuing from memory,"_

"Oh," Wheatley clearly sounded deflated. "Well, that didn't work."

The turret in Doc's hands promptly exploded and the pair jumped. "Now what?"

Marty's eyes drifted back outside to where the different turrets were being thrown into an incinerator, their startled cries bouncing off the walls. "Hang on, I've got an idea,"

Doc gestured for Marty to go and the teenager headed out the door. He walked back along the walkway and to where the path hung right beside the incinerator shaft. Putting his hands in the air, he caught a defective turret as it came flying towards him.

 **"Whoa, you saved my bacon, pal!"** The turret said. **"Where are we going? I can't see a thing!"**

Marty ignored it and brought it back to the office. Doc blinked. "A defective turret?"

"Yep, watch this," Marty grinned as he walked back into the glass chamber. He set the turret down underneath the scanner.

 _"New template accepted,"_

The trio watched as now the fully functioning turrets were thrown into the incinerator. "Well done Marty!" Doc grinned, clapping Marty on the shoulder. "That's those little pests disabled!"

"That was brilliant!" Wheatley agreed.

Marty shrugged. "It seemed like the obvious thing to do,"

"Right, now let me go and hack that other door and we can go and take out her neurotoxin generator too!" Wheatley passed through a gap in one wall and through to the other side of the door. "This is a lot more complicated than it looks from your side. It should take about ten minutes,"

Five seconds later, the door slid open automatically. Doc noticed that Wheatley was still trying to "hack" the door. He and Marty tiptoed quietly through the door and toward the robot.

Wheatley turned around and yelped. "Oh for the love of - how long's the door been open?"

"Ever since you left," Marty replied.

"Well, at least, say something in the future. Cough or whatever," Wheatley muttered, leading them down another passage. The passage lead them into a room marked "Employee Daycare Centre", which Doc and Marty passed through. Another corridor led to where several children's science projects were, most of which looked like potato batteries. A banner on the wall said, "'Bring your daughter to work' day."

"That did not end well," Wheatley remarked as the trio investigated the projects. "Faulty potato batteries. I know they're kids and all but it's not even science really, is it?"

Doc shrugged. "You'd be surprised at some of the stuff that's in my lab back home,"

As they walked along the corridor, they came across a huge plant. Marty read the board behind it. "Hmm, I wonder who Chell is,"

"Dunno," Wheatley shrugged his chassis. "Cor, that one's growing right up into the ceiling! I'll tell ya, I bet this whole place is overgrown with potatoes! At least, you won't starve,"

"I could really go for some French fries right now," Marty said. "I'm really hungry,"

"Well I reckon any food that was in storage here is long out of date," Wheatley said. "You can get some when you get home, I bet,"

Doc patted Marty's shoulder. "Not long now,"

Marty sighed. "Right,"

Wheatley led them down another passage and onto a walkway going across a huge, open chamber. In the centre of the chamber was a large container with pipes leading out of it into other places in the facility.

"That's the Neurotoxin Generator. It's pretty big, we're not gonna, you know, just be able to push it over. We need to apply some cleverness," Wheatley explained.

"Great Scott," Doc murmured. "It's huge. How are we supposed to take out that?!"

Marty gulped. "I feel bad for anyone who's been on the business end of that,"

"Right, there's a control room up at the top. Let's go and check it out," Wheatley led them up another set of stairs and around a corner. Cries from turrets as they fell into some sort of crusher echoed eerily around them.

"Ha! There's our handiwork. I shouldn't laugh, though, they do feel pain," Wheatley said as he guided them past the crushers. "It's all simulated of course, but it's all too real for them,"

Marty shuddered. He suddenly felt very guilty. "Oh man..."

Doc squeezed his pair stepped into an elevator which took them up to another platform. Luckily for Marty, the elevator was much wider and there was no need for them to be pressed against each other.

"Here we are!" the core exclaimed as the elevator shuddered to a halt and the pair stepped out. "Cor, that's a big laser!"

Turning his head, Doc noticed a large laser beam which was slicing panels in half. He didn't have to be the genius he was to understand that that thing could cause some serious injuries.

Marty walked along the platform until he came to a large, red button. He wasn't entirely sure what it did, but if it did anything bad, surely the people who built this place wouldn't have made it so accessible. He put his hand on it and pressed down.

"Wait we don't know what that button does- oh," Wheatley imitated a sigh of relief as the panels stopped moving and fell away, revealing a white panel which the laser was targeted upon. The door slid open. "Right, well done! Let's see what's inside,"

The pair walked through the door and were met with a view of the generator they'd seen earlier. Wheatley was in a locked office on one side, apparently talking to himself about what the floor was doing.

Marty looked out around the chamber. "How the hell does he expect us to be able to disable that thing?"

Doc spotted some white panels moving on conveyor belts past the tubes. An idea struck him. "Stay here,"

He walked out and Marty was left to think about what was going on. The sound of the portal gun being fired indicated that Doc was doing something. The scientist reappeared and fired a second portal onto one of the moving white panels. The laser beam appeared, cutting through the tubes.

"Wait a minute!" Wheatley shouted. "The neurotoxin levels are going down! Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!"

Doc nodded and shot another portal onto the second set of moving panels. The laser cut through those pipes too and soon all eight pipes had been disabled.

 _"Warning: Neurotoxin at dangerously un-lethal levels."_

Marty grinned. "Nice one!"

A siren sounded and a red light flashed. Wheatley let out a cry as a tube near him broke away, causing air and small objects to be sucked in. "Come on!"

Doc grabbed Marty's hand and pulled him towards the office. The door broke off and the trio were sucked into the pipe.

"This is great!" Wheatley cheered, spinning around in his chassis. "We can take it straight to her!"

Doc kept a firm grip on Marty's arm in case they got separated. As they approached a crossroad, Wheatley got pulled in another direction.

"Whoa! I-I'm going the wrong way! Just get to her, I'll find you!"

Marty kept an equally tight grip on Doc in case they too were separated. Eventually, the tube dumped them onto a platform.

The teenager got to his feet, flattening his hair down. "That was fun. Can we go again?"

Doc laughed as he too stood up and grabbed the portal gun. "Maybe, come on,"

Marty followed him through the passage. They passed through a couple of rooms before reaching a dead end. "Now what?"

"It seems like our only option is over there," Doc pointed to a panel on the opposite side of the huge shaft they were standing near. "We'll just have to figure out what to do from there,"

"Okay," Marty nodded. Once Doc had fired the portals, they jumped through. They landed in a square room made up of black panels. It was completely empty, apart from a seemingly out-of-place wooden door. There didn't seem to be any other way out apart from the door.

Marty walked over to it. On the door, the words "GLaDOS emergency shutdown and cake dispensary. Keep unlocked," were written. It seemed like a perfectly normal door. It was withered, much like the rest of the facility. The teenager assumed a scientist had built it and GLaDOS hadn't found it. He grabbed the handle and pulled.

He had expected the door to open, but all it did was fall straight down and hit the ground with a thud. Behind it were the same black panels the rest of the chamber was made up of.

"I honestly, truly didn't think you'd fall for that," GLaDOS's voice droned.

"Marty!" Doc hissed.

"Sorry," The teenager cringed.

"If I knew you'd let yourselves get captured this easily, I would have just dangled some turkey legs on a rope from the ceiling," GLaDOS said, a slight robotic laugh in her voice.

To their horror, the two humans realised that the walls were closing in on them, creating a much smaller space than the one before. Once the panels had stopped moving, the floor began to open up, The pair pressed their backs against the wall in an attempt to keep from falling into the glass chamber below, but even Marty's small feet couldn't stay on the decreasing ledge and soon both of them fell in. The ceiling closed over their heads and they could feel the chamber moving.

The wall in front of the chamber opened up, revealing the central AI chamber and a now fully-operational GLaDOS hanging from the ceiling within it. Any evidence of wreckage or plant foliage had been cleared away.

"I hope you two brought something stronger than a Portal Gun this time, otherwise, I'm afraid you're about to become ex-members of the Being Alive Club, Ha ha,"


	8. Core transfer

The glass chamber came to a stop in the centre of the room. GLaDOS swung her chassis closer to observe the two humans. "Goodbye,"

Several claws descended from the ceiling and placed turrets around the glass chamber. Only these were the defective turrets. They merely made clicking noises as they attempted to fire, before exploding one by one. The glass cracked, but didn't break.

Marty laughed. "Nice try!"

"Oh, you were busy back there, weren't you?" GLaDOS sighed. "Well, I suppose we could just sit in this room and glare at each other until one of you drops dead. But I have a better idea."

A tube extended around her chassis from a wall and the end of the tube smashed through one of the glass panels. "It's an old friend of mine. Deadly neurotoxin. If I were you, I would take a deep breath. And hold it."

Doc and Marty did nothing of the sort. They knew full well that they had destroyed the neurotoxin generator, so there was no way that anything deadly would flow out of that pipe. Doc merely smirked. "Don't be so sure that your precious neurotoxin still works,"

"Oof! Ow!" Several small yelps gradually grew closer as a familiar spherical object rolled down the tube towards them. Wheatley fell out the pipe and rolled onto the floor, breaking apart the glass panels. "Hello!"

Marty immediately picked the core up. "Wheatley! Great! You managed to find us!"

"Yep!" The core chirped happily.

"I hate you so much," GLaDOS snarled. Her chassis twitched irritably and it was clear by her optic that she was absolutely furious.

" _Warning."_ A sudden announcement came out over a speaker. " _Central core is 80% corrupt,"_

"That's funny," GLaDOS said. "I don't feel corrupt. In fact, I feel pretty good,"

" _Alternate core detected,"_

"Oooh!" Wheatley exclaimed. "That's me they're talking about!"

"Well you're the only other core in here," Doc pointed out.

" _To initiate core transfer, please place substitute core in the receptacle."_

A circular section of the floor opened up, revealing a core receptacle. Marty walked over to it, holding Wheatley in his arms.

"Core transfer? Oh, you have got to be kidding," GLaDOS groaned. "Don't plug that little idiot into _my_ mainframe!"

"Yes! Do it!" Wheatley protested. "Plug me in!"

"Don't! You don't know what you're doing!" GLaDOS exclaimed.

Marty raised an eyebrow but jammed Wheatley firmly into the receptacle.

" _Substitute core accepted. Substitute core, are you ready to start the procedure?"_

"Yes!" Wheatley cheered. He blinked his optic happily.

" _Corrupted core, are you ready to start the procedure?"_

"NO!" GLaDOS shouted, swinging her chassis around violently. "No way!"

"Oohhh yes she is," Wheatley said.

" _Stalemate detected."_ the announcer said. " _Transfer procedure cannot continue."_

"Damnit!" Marty cursed. He and Doc exchanged a worried look.

"Pull me out!" Wheatley shouted. "Pull me out pull me out pull me out!"

" _Unless a stalemate associate is present to press the Stalemate Resolution Button."_

"Leave me in!" Wheatley shouted. "Go press the button!"

A few panels on the wall opened up, revealing a side chamber with a red button in it. Marty ran over, only to be violently thrown backwards by some panels springing up from the floor. He landed roughly.

Doc darted over and helped him up. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Marty replied. "Come on!"

He grabbed the portal gun from the scientist. He winced a little. The weight of it put pressure on his burnt hands. He shook his head and fired a portal on a white panel on the floor and another one on a wall beside the stalemate button. He jumped through. He immediately ran towards the button. Several panels rose up from the floor and blocked his path.

"Not so fast!" GLaDOS said. "Look, you have to be a trained stalemate associate to press that button. You're unqualified,"

"Ignore her Marty!" Doc shouted. "Just press the button!"

Marty fired another portal on the opposite side of the button and jumped through. He reached the button before the panels could stop him. Taking a deep breath, he slammed his hand down on the button firmly.

GLaDOS sparked a little and went still. Her chassis hung limply in the centre of the room.

" _Stalemate resolved."_

"Haha YES!" Wheatley cheered. The receptacle began lowering into the floor. The core's optic suddenly widened in fear. "Oh God, what if this hurts? What if this really hurts?!"

Marty gulped as he made his way back over. "Uh oh,"

"Oh it will hurt," GLaDOS said, even though her chassis didn't move an inch. "Believe me, it will,"

"Yeah but exactly how painful are we talking about - AUUUUUGGGHHH!" Wheatley suddenly let out an agonizing scream. Marty's eyes widened in horror.

"Holy shit,"

A circular receptacle opened up beneath GLaDOS. "No, get off me! NO! NO!" GLaDOS too emitted a scream. Hers was more shrill and it pierced the two humans' ears. Panels on the floor rose up, preventing the pair from seeing what was happening. It sounded painful.

Doc cringed. "Oh God,"

The panels around the walls went limp as GLaDOS was disconnected. They soon moved back into place and a British cheer echoed around the room.

"Wahey!" Wheatley spun around in his newly-acquired chassis. Marty noticed that his handles had been pulled back. "Check this out! I'm in charge of the whole place!"

Marty laughed. "That's great!"

Doc grinned. "That went much better than I thought!"

"Well without those turrets and neurotoxin, there was nothing to kill you!" Wheatley lifted his lower eye shield in a grin. His casing shifted around in a way neither of the humans had seen before. "This is great!"

Some panels began juggling a cube, a turret and other objects as Wheatley showed off his new abilities. "Not too bad, eh? I'm a giant robot! It's not just me, though, right? I am bloody massive!"

"Compared to us you are, yeah," Doc replied. "That is pretty cool."

"Right, let me call the escape lift!" Wheatley said. "It's on its way. You know, I didn't think it would be this cool, but it is!"

Marty rolled his eyes and followed Doc over to where the elevator was descending from the ceiling. "Yeah, it's amazing."

"We still need the stuff to fix the DeLorean," Doc pointed out. Almost immediately, a claw came over to them, carrying a large box of tools.

"Here ya go!" Wheatley grinned again. "Will that do?"

"This is more than enough," Doc nodded. "Thanks." He grabbed the box and got into the elevator with Marty. The glass door slid shut.

"Check this out! I'm a bloody genius now!" Wheatley exclaimed. " _Está utilizando el software de traducción incorrecta. Por favor consulte el manual."_

Doc muttered into Marty's ear. "You are using the translation software incorrectly. Please consult the manual,"

Marty laughed.

"I don't even know what I just said!" Wheatley laughed. "But I can find out! Oh yeah, right, the lift."

The elevator began to rise towards the surface and Doc and Marty sighed in relief. They were finally getting out of here!

"I can't get over how small you are!" Wheatley said. "And I'm huge!"

The robot laughed joyfully… but Marty noticed that the laugh began to turn dark. His heart pounded in his chest. _No, no no! Don't do it! Please! Not now! We're so close!_

The elevator abruptly stopped moving. Marty groaned. "Oh shit…"

"Actually… why do we have to leave straight away?" Wheatley said, his voice laced with venom. His optic narrowed dangerously as the elevator descended again. "Do you have any idea how good this feels? I did this! Tiny little _Wheatley_ did this!"

"You didn't do anything…" GLaDOS's voice broke through. "They did all the work,"

"Oh really?" Wheatley growled. "That's what you guys think, is it? Well, why don't I do something then?"

Marty hammered his fists against the glass. "Wheatley! You son of a bitch! Let us go!"

The receptacle beneath the chassis opened up again and a claw came out. It took hold of GLaDOS's core and dragged her down through the floor.

Wheatley swung his chassis closer to the pair in the elevator. "You know what you two are? Selfish! All I've done is sacrifice for you and what have either of you sacrificed? Nothing!"

"That's not true and you know it!" Doc snapped. "Marty got shot trying to help _you_ escape!"

Wheatley ignored him. "All you've done is boss me around. Well, now who's the boss?! ME!"

A small beep came from beneath him and Wheatley swung backwards. The receptacle opened up again and out came a claw, holding a … potato?!

"See that?!" Wheatley sneered. "That is a potato battery! It's a kid's toy! And now she lives in it!"

There was a moment of silence as Doc and Marty only stared at the vegetable in horror. A yellow optic was present upon it with some wires leading out of it. Then, GLaDOS spoke again, her voice muffled by static.

"I know you."

"What?" Wheatley swung round and looked at the potato carefully.

"The engineers tried everything to make me behave. To slow me down. Once, they attached an Intelligence Dampening Sphere on me. It stuck to my brain like a tumour, generating an endless stream of terrible ideas,"

Wheatley could clearly tell where this was going. "Nope! Not listening!"

"It was _your voice!"_ GLaDOS exclaimed. "You're the tumour. You're not just a regular moron. You were designed to be a moron!"

"I AM NOT A MORON!" Wheatley shouted furiously.

"Yes, you are!" GLaDOS shouted back. "You're the moron they built to make me an idiot!"

The claw holding GLaDOS suddenly smashed into the elevator. Glass shattered, cutting into Doc and Marty's skin. "Now who's a moron?!" Wheatley screamed. "Could a moron do that?!"

Marty pressed his back against Doc's chest, terrified. Doc kept one arm around him protectively, the other hand gripping the portal gun tightly. The tools lay forgotten on the floor beside GLaDOS.

The claw slammed repetitively into the top of the elevator, forcing it down the shaft and breaking the glass. "Could a moron punch you into this pit?!" Wheatley hollered.

Marty cried out. "WHEATLEY! STOP IT!"

Wheatley laughed, sending a chill down Doc's spine. He slammed the claw into the top of the lift once more. The shaft now completely blocked the humans' view of the robot.

Marty's heart plummeted as the bottom of the elevator fell clean away, sending the three occupants falling down the shaft. He could just hear the "Uh oh…" emitted from Wheatley before darkness enveloped his vision and the three tumbled downwards through the base of the facility and towards the depths of Hell itself.

...

 **A/N: I tell ya, when that scene happened in the game, I was so angry. I just wanted to find Wheatley and punch his lights out. The traitorous little bastard!**


	9. Cave Johnson

" _Marty! Wake up! C'mon kiddo, open your eyes!"_

Marty groaned a little and rolled over. He forced his eyes open to see Doc's concerned face hovering above him. "Doc…? What the hell happened…?"

"You passed out," Doc explained, pulling him to his feet. "As soon as we landed you fell over and knocked your head on something."

Marty rubbed the back of his head, Sure enough, a small lump was beginning to form there. He took a moment to look around. There was broken and warped metal everywhere. Water dripped in from the ceiling, creating pools here and there. A fire was going, probably caused by the sparks from the broken elevator now hanging dangerously above them. There wasn't much light; anything that did break through only illuminated the dust and grime on every surface.

Now that he thought about it, Marty's attention turned to their clothes. By now, their jumpsuits were not as bright a colour as they had been. Several tears and burns were present on them. All the fabric from the lower half of the legs of Marty's jumpsuit had been torn clean away, revealing the grimy bandages covering his shins. Doc didn't look much better - his hair had traces of dirt in it and it was even more of a mess than usual. His face was tired, yet confident.

"We'd better keep going," he said, patting Marty's shoulder before picking up the portal gun and leading the teenager past some rusted metal and down a passage.

"Hey," Marty had just realised something. "Where's GLaDOS?"

"A crow flew off with her a minute ago. I tried to grab her but she was already being carried away. Heavens knows where she is now,"

The teenager sighed. He ran a hand through his hair. "Oh man, I can't believe Wheatley did that to us,"

"I can't either," Doc frowned. "But what's done is done. Let's just try and get out of here, get back to the car and go home. I've taken what few tools we need, so we should be able to fix the time circuits now,"

Marty nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. It was strange down here. All around them, the sound of distant, but loud, creaks and thuds of metal echoed. Sparks fell from broken wires higher up in the building. Their feet splashed in puddles as they walked and the sound vibrated around them. The place looked like an older version of Aperture, but much more run-down. It looked even more abandoned than the new facility, now miles above them.

Doc was glad to see that the white substance that accepted portals was painted on numerous walls around here. The placement of these walls seemed very convenient and he used them to get himself and Marty through some of the rubble. As they kept walking, they found more and more signs reading "Keep Out", "Do Not Enter" and "Condemned Testing Area". Whoever had put up these signs clearly didn't want anyone being here, and Doc could see why. The entire area was a health hazard. Broken pipes and bits of rubble everywhere made the place dangerous. But if they wanted to get out of here and back home, they had to keep going.

Marty was getting worried. What if there _was_ no way out of here? What if they starved to death down here before they found a chance to get out? What if, even if they managed to get out, Wheatley decided to try and kill them again? They were stuck in the very foundations of this place without GLaDOS. She was the only one who would know how to get out of here, and she was now stuck in a potato. The odds certainly were not in their favour.

Soon, they came to a huge vault door with two small offices on either side of it. Doc and Marty went up into one. On the desk, there was a large, red button with the word "OVERRIDE" printed next to it. What looked like a countdown clock was on the wall above the desk. Doc turned to Marty. "I think there's another button like this in the other office. It looks to me like we have to press both of them at the same time,"

Marty nodded and looked across the room at the other office. "I'll go over there,"

Once in the small office, there was indeed another red button. Doc pressed the one in his office and Marty pressed the other one. Immediately, a siren went off and an orange light started flashing. Creaks and groans were heard as a huge mechanism pulled the vault door up, revealing a small door set into the wall behind it. The pair headed over to the door and Marty pushed it open.

In this area, at least, there were fully-functioning electric lights. The pair could actually see where they were going. Passing through a second door, they came across what could only be described as a lake. The lake had the same stagnant appearance as the puddles earlier, but it covered the whole of the area in front of them. An old elevator stood on a separate platform in the lake, but it didn't seem accessible.

Marty and Doc walked up a small flight of metal stairs and came across some large doors. One of them was dented and propped open with rubble. It wasn't open enough for either of them to squeeze through, but Doc could fire a portal through it. He placed the second one on the wall beside them and they passed through. After pulling a lever, a screen door slid open.

Huge lights automatically came on as soon as they entered, revealing a large building on one side and some rusted scaffolding hanging from the ceiling. For the first time since arriving, a recorded message greeted them.

" _Welcome, gentlemen, to Aperture Science. Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians, you're here because we want the best, and you're it!"_ The voice was deep and authoritative. Confidence dripped from it like a wet sponge. " _Now, who's ready to make some science?!"_

"Do we have a choice?" Marty muttered.

The deep voice was answered by another. This one was female and sounded rather perky. " _I am!"_

" _Now, you already met each other on the way here, so let me introduce myself. I'm Cave Johnson. I own the place. That eager voice you heard is the lovely Caroline, my assistant. Rest assured, she has already donated your honorarium to the charitable organisation of your choice,"_

Marty groaned. "He sounds rather full of himself,"

"He owns a massive scientific research centre, of course he is," Doc replied.

" _Isn't that right, Caroline?"_

" _Yes sir Mr Johnson!"_

" _She's the backbone of this facility. Pretty as a postcard too. Sorry fellas, she's married. To science!"_

Marty looked up at the scaffolding. They had been standing in the chamber for a couple of minutes now and had made no effort to keep going. "Something tells me we've gotta go up there,"

Doc noticed a white surface on the floor. "Yes, we do. Then we have to throw ourselves across the room by jumping in there,"

Marty groaned but followed Doc up onto the scaffolding anyway. The scientist placed two more portals and jumped. The momentum carried him through the portal on the wall and he went sailing across the room, landing by another door. He turned to see that Marty was still standing on the scaffolding. "Come on! Jump!"

The teenager took a deep breath and jumped off the scaffolding. A moment later, he was stood beside Doc. He looked rather startled. "Jesus Christ!"

Doc chuckled and walked through the door. Another pre-recorded message came on instantly. " _A thousand tests every day are performed here in our Enrichment Spheres. I can't personally oversee every one of them, so these pre-recorded messages will clear up any questions you might have and respond to any comments you might have during the course of your science adventure."_

"When I got my doctorate, I didn't think this was part of the requirements," Doc muttered. "I'd rather invent stuff in the safety of my own lab."

Marty laughed. "I've done adventure courses before, but this has never been one of them,"

"Well that's something to add to your CV then, isn't it?" Doc chuckled. "'Test Subject for Dangerous Aperture Experiments',"

The teenager laughed again. From where they were now, they could easily reach the elevator. They got in and Doc pressed the button that allowed the elevator to ascend.

" _Those of you helping us test the Repulsion Gel today, just follow the blue line on the floor. Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is I'm afraid that test has been postponed indefinitely. The good news is we've got a much better test for you. Fighting an army of mantis men! Grab a rifle and follow the yellow line. You'll know when the test starts."_

Doc and Marty exchanged a worried look. Whoever this guy was, despite the amount of confidence in his voice, he clearly wasn't all that intelligent. "Great," Marty muttered. "Now we've got mutants to add to the list of things that can kill us,"

"This place must have been out of use as long as the other one," Doc pointed out. "It's likely that anything that was alive down here is now dead."

"Apart from that crow," Marty replied.

"Let's just hope that wasn't a mutant crow, eh?" Doc sighed. "This seems like some sort of nightmare,"

"I've already pinched myself. Trust me, it's really happening," Marty frowned.

The elevator shuddered to a halt and the pair got out. They noticed a door on the far side of the chamber. The walkway leading to it was broken. On the opposite side of the chamber was a white wall, placed at an angle. Doc narrowed his eyes and walked down the steps. He found a white surface at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Placing a portal there and another on the white wall, he looked back up the stairs towards Marty. "Come on, follow me,"

Marty jumped into the portal with Doc and they went flying across the room, both landing safely on the walkway. They walked up to the door and pushed it open. They came to another office with a lever placed on a control panel. The gate allowing them to continue was shut. The words "Pump station Alpha" were painted on the wall in the chamber. Huge pipes filled most of the room.

Doc walked over to the control panel and pulled the lever. Lights came on and a clear sound of something flowing through the pipes could be heard. The gate swung open. The pair walked through the gate and along the path. The scientist noticed that the only way out was via another walkway above them, so he placed some more portals and hopped up. Marty followed him through. They walked along a pipe until they came to another elevator.

"This place is huge…" Marty let out a whistle. "It must have taken decades to built it,"

"It looks like it was built into an abandoned salt mine," Doc replied. "I think I saw a newspaper article about it earlier. It looks a lot more worse-for-wear though,"

"I feel sorry for anyone who had to work here," Marty murmured. "Stuck miles underground for goodness knows how long."

"Well all we can do is keep making our way closer to the surface," said Doc. "I just hope Clara and the boys are alright,"

"I hope Jennifer's alright too," Marty murmured. "Man, I wish she was here,"

"We'll be able to get back to them soon, Marty, I promise," Doc assured, squeezing Marty's shoulder. "For them, it'll be as though we never left in the first place,"

"But we did leave," Marty replied. "My family aren't idiots, they'll realise something's up when I turn up home looking like this,"

"I'm sure you can get cleaned up at my place before you go back home," Doc said. "With any luck, our clothes and other possessions from home are right where we left them,"

"That is if Wheatley hasn't destroyed the place," Marty pointed out with a sigh. "God, I'm gonna punch that moron when I see him,"

"I wouldn't recommend it," the scientist muttered. "You're more likely to break your hand than cause him any harm,"

"Oh, right…" Marty sighed. As they approached the lift, another pre-recorded message came on.

" _They say great science is built on the shoulders of giants. Not at Aperture. Here, we do all our science from scratch. No hand-holding,"_

The pair passed through the emancipation grid at the entrance to the elevator and the door slid shut behind them. The elevator shuddered upwards. It soon ground to a halt inside a huge metal structure (that must be one of the testing spheres). More of that stagnant water lined the bottom of it and the pipes they'd seen earlier ran into a smaller chamber. Doc and Marty followed the walkway into the chamber.

" _Alright, let's get started. This first test involves something the lab boys call repulsion gel. You're not part of the control group, by the way. You get the gel. The last poor son of a gun got blue paint. Ha ha ha! All joking aside, though, that did happen. Broke every bone in his legs. Tragic, but informative. Or so I'm told."_

There was a second platform opposite them, across a small ditch. In the ditch, a blue gel-like substance covered the floor and walls. Large, orange arrows pointed in the direction of the other platform. Doc noticed that the door was up on a higher platform. On the wall opposite them was another white wall. The platform opposite the doorway had one as well. Taking a deep breath, Marty ran forward and jumped down into the ditch.

The sensation was peculiar. It was as if he was on a trampoline. Instead of landing in the ditch, Marty was thrown back upwards and onto the opposite platform. He grinned. "Hey, Doc! You gotta try this!"

Doc looked uncertainly at the gel. "I don't know, is it safe?"

"Well I'm not hurt, am I?" Marty called back. "Just come on over here!"

Doc jumped into the ditch and, after almost falling over, joined Marty on the platform. He placed two portals, allowing them to reach the higher platform. Now they could see that there was a large, square button, which obviously meant that they needed to get a cube from somewhere. Looking across the chamber, they spotted a smaller button.

Marty jumped off this platform and landed on the gel again. With equal force, he was sent flying upwards and onto the platform beside the door. He pressed the button and a cube was released from a dispenser they hadn't noticed earlier. The cube bounced and landed on the platform below them. The teenager grabbed it, put it on the larger button and the door slid open. They both jumped onto the gel and landed beside the door.

" _The lab boys just informed me that I should not have mentioned the control group. They're telling me I oughta stop making these pre-recorded messages. That gave me an idea: make more pre-recorded messages! I pay the bills around here, I can talk about the control group all damn day!"_

Doc and Marty exchanged a glance and kept moving along the walkways. That repulsion gel seemed fairly easy to use, the only problem appeared to be how to stop bouncing when they landed on it. They would just have to cross that bridge when they got to it.


	10. PotatOS

Cave Johnson was gradually getting on Doc's nerves. The more he spoke, the more he talked about things that had gone wrong with testing. His over-confidence didn't make the situation better. It was almost as if this guy was happy that he'd forced thousands of people through these ridiculous tests. There was no point in completing these tests - nobody was around to see it - but they had no choice. After each test, an elevator brought them closer and closer to the surface … and to home.

Eventually, they came across another pump station, this one labeled "Beta". Two sets of pipes ran through it. The first set was painted with blue arrows, clearly containing repulsion gel. The second set had orange arrows on it. Doc had noticed that the colours blue and orange seemed to reoccur throughout both this facility and the new one. At least, they kept to a colour scheme.

At the top of the station was a small office. It didn't look as though they would be able to reach the office from where they were. Doc placed some portals, allowing them to reach a platform. He could see two white sections of the floor below them: one directly underneath them, the other was a bit further off. The scientist placed a portal on each of these white panels and jumped in.

He was sent flying straight upwards, facing a slightly different direction. From there, he could see another white portal on the wall. He attempted to fire a portal on that, but gravity pulled him back down again and through the portals.

From Marty's point of view, this looked hilarious; Doc was effectively falling upwards between portals and it looked absolutely bizarre. He couldn't help but laugh, especially because his friend's mane of white hair was being thrown around too.

Doc successfully managed to place a portal on the wall and he sailed across to the office. Marty was still chuckling. "Like an eagle… piloting a blimp!"

Doc's snort of laughter could be heard from across the room. Leaning over the edge of the door, the scientist placed a portal on the panel beneath Marty, allowing him to jump through and join him. "Come on you,"

Marty rolled his eyes. On the desk in the office were two levers, one blue and one orange. They both pulled a lever and the familiar flowing-liquid sounds came from the pipes. The door slid open and they were able to progress. They walked through another door and into a large chamber. A building was at one end with some broken stairs leading into it. Cave Johnson was talking again.

" _Hello, I'm Cave Johnson, CEO of Aperture Science. You may remember us as a vital participant in the 1968 senate hearings on missing astronauts, and you've most likely used one of the many products we've invented, but which other people have somehow managed to steal from us. Black Mesa can kiss my bankrupt -"_

" _Sir?"_ Caroline's voice cut him off. " _The testing,"_

" _Right. Now, you might be asking yourself: Cave, just how difficult are these tests? What was in that phonebook of a contract I signed?"_

He appeared to be repeating the same sort of nonsense again, so Doc and Marty ignored him. They noticed an elevator shaft on the ceiling, but the gate leading to the walkway was shut. They spotted an office in the building, but the broken stairway meant that they wouldn't be able to get there on foot. It seemed as though they would have to use portals again to get up there.

That's exactly what they did. They placed some portals and managed to reach the upper level of the building. As they walked into the office, they noticed a crow sitting in a nest. It appeared to be pecking at something, and that _something_ was shouting!

"GET OFF ME!"

Marty gasped and ran over. The bird flew off, revealing a slightly bashed potato sitting in the nest. "GLaDOS?!"

"Oh, thank God," the potato emitted a robotic sigh of relief. "I thought I'd be eaten!" The room suddenly shook rather violently and the sound of a distant explosion could be heard. "Did you hear that? That little idiot doesn't know what he's doing up there. This whole place will blow up if we don't get me back into my body."

Doc cringed. "This isn't good…"

"Look, I understand you don't want to help me, but we're at an impasse. Unless one of you is prepared to saw your own head off and wedge it into my body, you're going to need me to replace him. I can't move, would you mind picking me up?"

Marty carefully picked the potato up. In doing so, he released the button that the potato had been resting on. A siren went off and Doc noticed that the gate was open. He looked at the potato in Marty's hands. "There's a risk that she will be destroyed by the emancipation grid if we bring her through,"

Marty frowned. "Then we'd really be screwed."

Doc carefully took the potato from Marty - and jammed it roughly onto the end of the portal gun.

"OW!" GLaDOS yelled. "You stabbed me! What is wrong with - whoa...!"

"What's wrong?" Marty asked. He looked the potato over.

"The gun must be part magnesium. It feels like I'm outputting an extra half a volt." GLaDOS replied. "I'm going to do some scheming. Here I go-" The potato went silent, emitting only a faint spark. Marty noticed that the optic had dimmed.

"She must have overpowered the potato," Doc explained. "It can only generate a very limited amount of power. She'll be fine in a minute,"

Marty ran a hand through his hair and nodded. Doc placed some more portals and they returned to the broken walkway. The teenager walked towards the office on the side. "Hey, check this out,"

Doc shrugged and followed him, looking around the office. Papers were littered everywhere and the scientist was reminded of his lab back home. Marty found a door partially hidden by a set of drawers and as he walked over to it, it slid open.

"What's that?" Doc called.

"I don't know, it's a passageway, come on!" Marty called back. The pair walked down the corridor and came to the only open door at the end. Going through it, they reached what looked like some sort of dockyard. "Hey, Doc? What's the 'Borealis'?"

Doc turned his head to see a lifeguard ring lying against the wall. Sure enough, the word 'Borealis' was painted on it. "I can only assume it was some sort of ship. It appears to be gone, though. Whoever was here must have removed it."

"But who would need a ship this far underground?" Marty asked.

"Whoa," GLaDOS's voice suddenly came back, and the potato's optic lit up again. "How long have I been out?"

"Only about a couple of minutes," Doc replied.

Marty frowned and looked back at the ring. "What on Earth happened down here?"

"Don't know, we'd better keep going. Best not to dwell on it,"

"Last I heard," GLaDOS piped up. "Was that this ship disappeared. Apparently the people building it wanted to beat another company to get some funding and they compromised a lot of basic safety rules. The ship vanished,"

Marty cringed. "Geez, as if this place wasn't freaky enough,"

"Let's keep going. We can't be that far from the surface now, surely," Doc lead Marty back down the passage. They placed a portal at the bottom of the chamber directly below them and another high up on the wall behind them. Jumping through, they landed just in front of the elevator. They got in and the door shut. The elevator shuddered and rose slowly upwards.

"I'd better not think too hard," GLaDOS murmured. "Otherwise, I'm going to fry this potato before we get a chance to burn up in the atomic fireball that LITTLE IDIOT IS GOING TO-" Another burst of static indicated that she had indeed just fried the processor in the potato again. The pair just let her recover.

Marty couldn't help but think about the crew on the Borealis. Something had happened to that ship, he just didn't know what. GLaDOS had mentioned that it had been unsafe, so maybe it sprung a leak and sunk. He still had no clue who this 'Black Mesa' company were that Cave had mentioned. There was clearly more to this future than he had first thought.

Despite the fact that he hated this place, he didn't fancy the idea of going back. Wheatley was there. If the moron was angry enough to force them down a broken elevator shaft, then it was likely he would kill them. Even though he was a moron, he most likely remembered taking out the neurotoxin generator as well as the turrets. The teenager had a feeling that those two items were going to become obstacles again.

The lift came to a halt beside another testing chamber and Cave Johnson's voice came out over the speakers again. " _The testing area is just up ahead. The quicker you get through, the quicker you get your money."_

"Hold on, who is that?" GLaDOS was clearly operational again.

Cave could be heard muttering something in the background.

"Yes sir, Mr Johnson," GLaDOS said. "Hold on, why did I say that? What the hell is going on here-"

Marty sighed. "She fried the damn thing again, didn't she?"

Doc nodded, smirking slightly. He noticed that there was a button on a platform and once he'd placed some portals, he was standing beside it. He saw that a pipe would eject some orange gel. From his vantage point, he could see just where the gel had to go. "Marty, get out the way!" He called. "Otherwise, you'll get soaked in this gel,"

Marty nodded and stood off to one side. Doc placed a portal beneath the pipe and another one on the wall facing a ramp. He pressed the button. Gel poured out of the pipe and slid along the floor, covering a strip of the floor and the ramp. The teenager walked onto the gel and started sliding around rather quickly. He fell flat on his backside, to which Doc laughed.

Marty shot him a glare. "I'd like to see you do better,"

Doc smirked and jumped down. He walked onto the gel and slid around with relative ease. "You know, for a kid who spends eighty percent of his life on a skateboard, you're pretty bad at this,"

Marty got to his feet and gave Doc a hard shove, causing the scientist to slip away. The gel had the same effect as an ice-skating rink, allowing them to get up to speeds higher than either of them could run. Marty ran towards the ramp and sailed over the gap, easily landing on the other side. Doc joined him.

There was another white panel on the wall beside them. Doc placed an orange portal there and a blue one above the platform where the button was and jumped through. Marty fell through after him.

"Whoa…" Marty groaned as he landed unsteadily on his feet. "I'm never going to get used to that,"

Doc chuckled and placed the blue portal below the pipe. He pressed the button again and saw that the gel now covered the corridor that they had been in previously. He jumped back through the portal and slid along the corridor, passing over the gap and reaching a cube. He grabbed the cube and made his way back over to Marty, placing the cube on the large button. The ramp adjusted in height, allowing them to reach the door.

The door was shut. Marty sighed. "Now what?"

Doc gestured to a white panel and some arrows pointing upwards. "Something tells me one of us has to use that gel and get up there." He looked at his teenage friend. "Would you do the honours?"

Marty rolled his eyes and, once Doc had placed the portals, went back over to the other side. He ran on the propulsion gel and was sent flying straight upwards. At the top of the jump, he managed to slam his hand down onto a button. He landed on the ground and the door slid open.

The pair walked through the door just as GLaDOS rebooted again. "Okay, I guess emotional outbursts like that require more than 1.6 volts." Marty held back a snicker at the thought of his friend exclaiming just how much power was needed for the flux capacitor to work. "Now we know that we just have to relax."

"That's easy for you to say," Marty pointed out. "You're just sitting there while we do all the work,"

"It's not like I have a choice, you know," GLaDOS snapped. "And from what I can tell you're not doing much work. It appears that Emmett is the one doing everything. Have you always been this much of a slacker?"

Marty growled. "I _would_ be helping him if it weren't for the fact that my hands are still burnt and my left arm hurts like hell!"

"The only reason you're injured is because of your own stupidity," GLaDOS retorted. "Perhaps if you spent less time being so useless and more time actually paying attention you wouldn't be hurt,"

Marty made a move to grab the potato but Doc pulled the gun out of his reach, holding it above his head. Marty jumped up and tried to grab it, but he was too short. "God DAMNIT Doc!"

Doc fixed him a stern look. "Marty, cut it out. Fighting in a situation like this will get us nowhere. Like GLaDOS said, we have to stay calm,"

"You expect me to be CALM?!" Marty shouted. "We got stuck here, locked in a room, forced through some tests, been thrown in front of talking machine guns, been put in front of lasers and shoved down an elevator shaft! We have no idea where we are or how to get out of here! We're STUCK!"

"Freaking out and shouting will not help!" Doc snapped. "Now why don't you just take a deep breath and calm the hell down."

Marty growled, sucking air in through his teeth. He narrowed his eyes. "The only reason we're stuck here is because you decided to modify the DeLorean AGAIN! Why can't you just leave that fucking thing alone?!"

"Because it's the only thing I've ever built that has ever been worthwhile!" Doc shouted. "Everything else has just been a failure,"

"No wonder," Marty muttered under his breath. "They've all been failures 'cause they were built by a madman!"

"ENOUGH!" Doc shouted. "Listen, we can have this argument later. Right now, let's just focus on getting back to the main facility,"

Marty muttered something incoherent under his breath again and shoved his hands in his pockets. Doc let out a frustrated growl and kept walking, the teenager trudging along behind him.


	11. The truth about GLaDOS

For a good few hours, Marty didn't say a word. It was fairly awkward, he'd admit, having to stick close to someone he wasn't talking to. He just followed Doc through the testing chambers for a little while, his anger gradually being replaced by guilt. He didn't speak, not even when a new component of testing entered the equation, a white gel that he'd heard was called 'conversion gel'. He was being stubborn, but the guilt slowly began eating away at him.

As they walked into an office, they were greeted with another pre-recorded message. Something, however, was wrong. " _Welcome to the Enrichment Centre,"_ Cave's voice sounded weak and between every few sentences, he would start coughing. " _Since making test participation mandatory for all employees, the quality of our test subjects has risen dramatically. Employee retention, however, has not."_

Marty couldn't help but cringe as the recorded voice coughed again. " _As a result, you may have heard that we're gonna phase out human testing. There's still a few things left to wrap up, though. The bean counters told me that we literally couldn't afford to buy seven dollars worth of moon rocks, let alone seventy million. Bought 'em anyway! Ground 'em up, mixed 'em into a gel. And it turns out ground-up moon rock is pure poison. I am deathly ill. Still, turns out they're a great portal conductor, so for now, we're gonna see if jumping in and out of these portals can somehow leech the lunar poison out of a man's bloodstream. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Now let's all stay positive and do some science!"_ The voice started coughing hard again before the recording ended.

"Oh man…" Marty murmured. He looked down at his clothes, noticing traces of moon rock gel covering them. He just hoped that he wouldn't get ill from it in the way Cave had. The last thing he needed was for Doc to have to take care of him. According to what Cave had said, those moon rocks caused fatal infections. He couldn't die. He had a family and a girlfriend to go back to.

Doc noticed the concern on his companion's face. "Everything alright?"

Marty jumped a little. He hadn't been expecting Doc to talk to him after the way he'd behaved. "I-I guess so," he murmured.

Doc frowned and put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "We will get out of here. We're not far from the surface now, surely,"

Marty nodded numbly, refusing to look the scientist in the eye. "I'm sorry I was being a jerk earlier," he mumbled. "I didn't mean anything of what I said,"

Doc knelt to his level and looked him in the eye. "It's alright. I understand this is putting a lot of pressure on you. It's okay," he smiled. Marty grinned back.

The scientist stood up straight and ruffled his hair. "Come on, we're not far away now,"

Marty nodded and followed him. They got into the elevator and it shuddered upwards. The mechanics groaned, indicating that it had been a very long time since the elevator had last been used. It reflected the rest of the facility. Rust and grime covered almost every surface and the water lining the bottom of each sphere was completely opaque with mould and anything else that had fallen into it over the years. The place was in a serious state of disrepair. It was hard to believe that this place even existed. Marty had seen dates written on the walls, years like 1961 and 1983, indicating that this place was fully operational during 1985.

They passed through another chamber, in which they had to cover most of the place in conversion gel, and approached the exit. A very enthusiastic Cave came on over the loudspeaker.

" _Alright, I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?!"_

Marty snickered. This guy was having a full-on rant about _lemons_ of all things!

" _Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I'M THE MAN WHO'S GONNA BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN! WITH THE LEMONS! I'M GONNA GET MY ENGINEERS TO INVENT A COMBUSTIBLE LEMON THAT BURNS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!"_

Cave started coughing again, and GLaDOS piped up, "Yeah! Burning people, he says what we're all thinking!" Doc chuckled a bit.

" _The point is, if we can store music on a compact disk, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one? Artificial Intelligence, I'm having the engineers figure that out now. We should have been working on it thirty years ago. Now, I will say this and I'm gonna say this on tape so everyone hears it a hundred times a day: If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place,"_

He started coughing again and Doc and Marty exchanged a worried glance. " _Now, she'll argue, she'll say she can't. She's modest like that. But you make her! Put her in my computer, I don't care. Now, tests over, you can head on back to your desks,"_

"Goodbye, sir," GLaDOS said quietly.

Doc and Marty looked at each other. The scientist sat down for a moment to rest, and his friend joined him. "You don't think… you don't think that GLaDOS and Caroline are… linked, do you?"

Marty frowned. "Well, remember what that defective turret said? 'The answer is beneath us'? What if… what if _this_ is what it meant?"

Doc shook his head. "That is impossible. There was no way that turret could have known what was going to happen, defective or not."

"It mentioned something about someone being 'cast into the bowels of the earth' and being pecked by birds. That is exactly what happened to GLaDOS. She was shoved down the pit and a crow started trying to eat her,"

"I'm right here, you know," GLaDOS muttered. "You know, now that you mention it, the name 'Cave Johnson' does ring a bell,"

Marty frowned and laid against the wall. "Something tells me that that turret knew what was going to happen. It said 'her name is Caroline', so it… I don't know, this is freaking me out,"

"Me too," Doc nodded. "Then there were those paintings on the walls when we first got here. Who could have known that we'd turn up, if this place has been abandoned for eons?"

Marty shrugged. "You're the genius, how am I supposed to know?"

"That's the thing," Doc replied. "It makes absolutely no logical sense. Without the ability to travel through the fourth dimension, there is no possible explanation for someone being able to predict when and even _if_ we show up,"

"Something weird is going on here, and I don't like it," Marty murmured.

"There is a slight possibility that by us even being here we could have created a major paradox," Doc groaned. He ran a hand over his face to wipe the sweat away. "The reason they could have painted us on the wall is because we would have gone there in the near future, say the year 2002. By us being there, someone could have predicted that we'd show up again later. But by us being here now, we know to stay away from a place like this, meaning the painting would never be created and - "

"Whoa, Doc! Stop! All this paradox stuff is making my brain hurt," Marty muttered. "I still don't understand what's going on with this Caroline woman,"

"Well, from what I've picked up, Cave cared about her a lot. It appears to be that he passed away before he could be 'poured into a computer', as he so eloquently stated, so it seems that Caroline took his place," Doc mused.

"But that must mean…" Marty's voice trailed off as his gaze fixed onto GLaDOS. Now that he thought about it, GLaDOS and Caroline _did_ sound similar. GLaDOS obviously had a more robotic tinge to her voice, but they were very similar.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" GLaDOS asked accusingly. "Or are you just going to leave me in the dark?"

"You're a supercomputer," Doc pointed out. "Surely you must have figured it out by now,"

"Well, without all my files - which that little _idiot_ is probably looking through as we speak - I can't remember half of what I was programmed with," GLaDOS replied. "And this potato hardly suffices as a processor. It barely has the power to keep this optic going!"

"Which is why you've already shorted out three or four times," Marty added.

"Exactly," GLaDOS retorted. "Until we get out of here, let's not think about anything too challenging. Only one of us seems capable of thinking in such a complex way, and he's also the tallest here,"

"Hey!" Marty protested. "It may be true but still!"

Doc chuckled. "Calm down Marty," he shook his head. "I'm sure she only meant it as a joke,"

"You know I did," GLaDOS put in. "I wouldn't deliberately insult you because you would get angry. Being stuck in a potato means that I literally have nothing to defend myself with,"

"True," Marty shrugged, leaning back again. He put a hand over his mouth as he yawned and rubbed an eye. "Man, I need coffee injected into my veins,"

"That would kill you," Doc replied, but he smirked. "But I can see where you're coming from,"

"Can we just take a break for a bit?" Marty asked, yawning again.

"That would be a good idea," GLaDOS said. "Being tired can cause your concentration to lapse. You could easily make a mistake and be hurt, or worse, killed. And with me stuck in the vegetable, it doesn't look like I'm going to be traveling anywhere anytime soon,"

"Right then," Doc relaxed back against the wall. "Just a few hours, we still have to go and confront that moron,"

Marty nodded and closed his eyes. The floor wasn't particularly comfortable, but at this point, he didn't care. He curled up a little and drifted off. GLaDOS powered down and Doc too fell asleep.

…..

A few hours later, they were on the move were now much closer to the surface. In order for them to reach the vault door leading to the new facility, they had to use several carefully-placed portals. They had to jump into them, the momentum being used to carry them upwards. Doc had kept a firm grip on Marty's arm to keep them together and they soon landed on an angled platform.

Marty stumbled a bit but was just about able to keep his footing. "Jesus… thank goodness I don't get motion sickness," he mumbled, although he did look rather pale.

Doc shot him a concerned look. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I think so," Marty put a hand on his forehead. "I'll just sit down for a moment,"

Doc patted his shoulder. "No time for that now, we're almost there,"

Marty sighed and followed the scientist through the portal and up a walkway. He could see an office at the top of the chamber, presumably containing a button that would open the massive vault door now looming above them.

"You wait down here," Doc said. "I'll go up to the office and get that door open,"

Marty nodded and was all too happy to sit down, allowing his head to stop spinning. He laid flat on his back and took a few deep breaths.

Doc, meanwhile, jumped into a portal and was sent flying across the top of the chamber, landing in the office. The glass window had obviously been broken a long time ago.

GLaDOS noticed a poster on the wall. "Would you mind looking at that poster for a minute?"

Doc looked over at it and read, "Know you paradoxes: The one way to defeat a rogue AI,"

"Paradoxes… that's the answer!" GLaDOS exclaimed. "No AI can resist thinking about it. When we get up there, we'll hit him with the paradox. As long as I don't think about it, I should be alright,"

"If it would help," Doc suggested, "I could hit him with it and you can try not to focus on it,"

"That would be great," GLaDOS replied. "Thanks,"

Doc nodded. "Right then, let's get out of here." He pressed the button and a siren went off. Orange lights began flashing. With several tremendous creaks and groans, the mechanisms on the vault door began to work and the door gradually began to swing open. A square elevator began lowering itself down through the ceiling.

The scientist jumped down from the office and rejoined his friend. "Come on, we're getting out of here,"

"Finally," Marty sighed in relief. "Let's go and get that moron out of the chassis,"

"It isn't going to be easy," GLaDOS said. "He'll most likely have as many turrets and as much neurotoxin as he likes at his disposal. We'll have to be careful,"

"Careful is my middle name," Marty smirked.

Doc raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you decided that skateboarding down the courthouse steps would be a good idea?"

Marty went red. "Shut up," he muttered.

Doc laughed. "Come on." The pair got into the elevator and the door swung shut. The elevator rose upwards, swinging slightly.

Marty sighed in relief again as the sight of the old facility gradually became smaller and smaller. When the elevator finally stopped, they got out and approached the staircase leading upwards into the new building. The light flowing down from upstairs make the steps look like the stairway to Heaven, but Marty knew that with Wheatley running the place, it would be far from Heaven up there.


	12. Testing for a Moron

As the lift slid to a halt and the door opened, it was clear that something had changed. Well, they knew something had changed so that part was obvious. The structure of the facility seemed weakened and generally unstable.

"I can't believe what that little idiot has done," GLaDOS murmured.

Wheatley's voice could be heard from a testing chamber up ahead. "For God's sake! You're boxes! With legs! It's literally your only purpose, walking onto buttons! How could you not do the one thing you were designed for?!" Marty looked through a window to see a large monitor with Wheatley on it. His casing was moving around in a way that appeared to imitate heavy breathing. He gritted his teeth. He couldn't believe Wheatley had betrayed them like that after they'd trusted him.

Wheatley had apparently made some rather horrific looking robotic creatures. From what Marty could see, they looked like cubes with turrets welded into them. Some of the cubes were crawling around, crashing into each other. Others were lying down, flailing their legs in the air pathetically. The teenager felt awful, seeing those things like that.

The robot appeared to be guiding them towards a button. "Warmer, warmer warm- nope, colder, colder. You're arctic now. Look just get on the button! Oh, that's funny is it? Well, we've been at this for twelve hours already and you can't even solve the bloody thing! You've got one hour! Solve it!" The monitor went blank.

Doc shot a portal through a broken gap in the wall, allowing them to jump down onto a walkway. An elevator took them towards the entrance of the chamber. A few of the turret-cubes looked at them and continued hopping around. Marty walked over to one and picked it up. The thing trembled in his hands, fixing the teenager with a terrified stare. Marty felt a lump forming in his throat.

"Oh my God…" Doc murmured, looking around at the turret-cubes. "This is horrific,"

Marty nodded a bit. Seeing that they had no choice but to solve the simple puzzle if they wanted to escape, he placed the turret-cube down on the large button.

The door slid open and was immediately blocked by a panel. The monitor flickered into life again and Wheatley reappeared. "Haha yes!"

"You absolute son of a bitch," Marty growled, taking a few steps towards the monitor.

Wheatley's upper eye shield slid down, giving him an unimpressed look. "Oh, it's you,"

"Yeah, it's us!" Marty spat. "Don't you remember us? We're the ones who tried to help you get out of here, only to have you stab us in the back!"

Wheatley muttered something inaudible.

"What was that?" Doc growled. "Because it sure as hell didn't sound like an apology,"

"I said it serves you and that little brat right," Wheatley retorted.

Marty growled and took another step closer, his hands balled into fists. "You're a lying, traitorous little fucker!" He spat.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Wheatley taunted. "That's right, nothing! If it weren't for the fact that I'm short on test subjects right now, I'd kill you there and then!"

Marty scoffed. "No, you wouldn't,"

"Marty…" Doc warned. "Don't tempt him,"

"Yeah, listen to the old man," Wheatley sneered. "You little chicken!"

"That is IT!" Marty growled and lunged towards the monitor. Doc dropped the portal gun and held him back. Wheatley only laughed.

"What are you gonna do, smash the monitor? Go ahead! I've got thousands of the bloody things anyway!"

"I'LL SMASH THAT FUCKING SMUG OPTIC OF YOURS!" Marty shouted.

"Marty!" Doc pulled his friend away from the monitor and put his hands on the teen's shoulders. "There's no use in arguing. We're not far from getting out of here. Besides, there's nothing we can do to him until we actually meet him face to face." He muttered this last part into Marty's ear so Wheatley couldn't hear.

"What was that? What are you talking about?!" Wheatley demanded.

Doc looked up at him and smirked. "This sentence is false."

Wheatley blinked and looked at him. "Uhh, true. I'll go true. There, that was easy,"

"It's a paradox!" GLaDOS yelled. "There is no answer!"

"Yeah, but I've heard that one before," Wheatley shrugged.

"Look," GLaDOS growled. "This entire place is going to blow up soon if I don't get back in my body!"

"False," Wheatley replied nonchalantly. "That's false."

A warning echoed in the background, coming from the central AI chamber. " _Explosion imminent. Evacuate the facility immediately."_

"Hold on, I thought I fixed that," Wheatley emitted a robotic sigh of frustration and disappeared off screen for a moment. Some static was heard and the announcement went silent. "There we go, fixed."

"I can't believe that you don't seem to give a shit about the facility exploding!" Marty yelled. "If this place goes up in flames, so do you! Everything you have will be gone!"

"No, it won't," Wheatley replied. "Because I'm a bloody genius and you two are just smelly little humans. What have humans ever done that's been helpful?!"

"Humans built this facility in the first place!" Doc snapped. "Including you. Why they would make such a mistake I don't know,"

Wheatley growled again. "You're wrong."

Doc narrowed his eyes. "Can we just keep moving now, or do you want to sit here and argue for as long as it takes for this whole place to be destroyed?!"

Wheatley narrowed his optic shields, but the panel blocking the door moved away. Marty noticed with a cringe that the turret-cubes were now malfunctioning. The turrets were sparking and their optics appeared to be glitching. He gulped and swiftly followed Doc out of the room.

"You have no idea what it's like being in this body!" Wheatley's tone of voice suddenly changed to a much more cheerful one. "I have to test, all the time, or I get this itch! It must be programmed into the system or something,"

" _My_ system, you mean," GLaDOS muttered quietly.

"Oh, but I tell you, when I do test, oh-hoh man alive! Nothing beats that! So I've just gotta keep testing!"

Marty ran a hand through his hair. If Wheatley had this urge to test so badly, then it seemed like they would be there for a while.

"Right, now you're gonna test and I'm gonna watch. Everything is gonna be just- "

" _Warning: Core overheating. Nuclear meltdown-"_

"SHUT UP!" Wheatley shouted. The announcement went quiet.

"Oh no…" the potato murmured. "This is bad."

They stepped into an elevator which brought them up into another testing chamber. It looked just as easy as the one they'd just been through. Two raised platforms stood either side of a ditch. On their side was a small red button. On the other were a larger button and a dispenser placed directly above it. Marty could see that some more of those turret-cubes were placed in it.

"Now, I know this test is very difficult," Wheatley said. "But there is indeed a solution. Notice the moat area down there. It's very deadly. Extremely dangerous,"

Doc looked over the edge. It wasn't deadly at all. Black panels lined the ditch and a few white ones were placed on one wall, presumably so that if they fell in, they would be able to get out again. "Oh wow," he remarked sarcastically. "I wouldn't wanna take my chances in that,"

Marty made no attempt to muffle his laughter. "Oh no, you might die!"

Doc chuckled. Wheatley didn't seem to find this the least bit amusing. "Well, it's not done yet. I'm working on it. Now come on, solve it,"

Doc and Marty exchanged glances and simultaneously crossed their arms. This was a little painful for Marty, however, as his left arm still had a nasty bullet wound in it. He managed to hide the small yelp he let out. "No."

Wheatley shifted back a little in the chassis. "What do you mean, no? It's easy! Come on, just solve it!"

"Why should we?" Marty raised an eyebrow.

"Because if you don't, you have no chance of getting out of here," Wheatley pointed out.

Doc sighed and dropped his arms back to his sides. "As much as I hate to admit it, he's right." He walked forwards and pressed the button. A turret-cube fell out and landed on the button.

Wheatley let out a very strange moan. "Oh-hohhh, yes. Oohhh, well done. Oh-hohoh, that's tremendous,"

Marty raised an eyebrow and gave the robot a rather concerned look. Doc coughed awkwardly and fired a portal next to the door, allowing them to exit.

"Oh that felt re-he-heally good," Wheatley moaned again. "Ooh! Here's an idea! Since making tests is so difficult, who don't you just keep solving this one?"

Marty glared at him. "Hey! That's not fair! You can't just make us do the same boring shit over and over again just for you to get that feeling!"

"Oh come on, this is much easier than doing lots of different ones," Wheatley replied. "Go on, you've already solved it once!"

A panel on the wall opened up and the pair walked through the gap, ending up in the same chamber again. Doc pressed the button and, yet again, a turret-cube fell onto the button.

Wheatley had clearly been expecting the same sort of euphoria because, once the test was over, he sounded rather disappointed. "Oh, well then. Can't blame me for trying. Alright, new tests... new tests… here we go!"

Doc and Marty got into the elevator. The glass door slid shut and they were carried upwards. Wheatley was obviously doing things differently as when GLaDOS had run the place, the elevators all brought them further away from the central AI chamber. Wheatley was bringing them right to him.

"Alright, so that paradox didn't work." GLaDOS sighed. "And it almost killed me. Luckily, by the looks of things, he knows as much about test building as he does about logical contradictions."

"So absolutely nothing," Marty added. "Great, hopefully, we'll be able to get him out of there fairly soon,"

"That is," Doc pointed out. "If he hasn't come up with some ridiculous scheme."

"He was specifically designed to be a moron," GLaDOS deadpanned. "There is no way he'd be able to think of something like that all on his own. He'd have to have some help and seeing that we're the only other ones around here, that seems unlikely,"

Marty sighed and ran a hand through his matted hair. It was in dire need of a clean - his whole body was. He was still absolutely starving and this was made clear when his stomach growled. Plus, they were back in those tiny, cramped elevators again, meaning he and Doc were a little bit squashed. The elevator came to a halt soon enough, thank goodness, and they both got out.

"It shouldn't be hard for us to stay alive long enough to find him," GLaDOS said.

" _Shouldn't be hard?!"_ Marty exclaimed. "He's a fucking maniac who could kill us at any given moment!"

"As long as we concentrate and keep calm," Doc said, "we'll be alright."

Marty sighed again. "Great…"

"Everything's fine!" Wheatley called as they rounded the corner into the chamber. One thing Doc immediately noticed was that it was very white. "I just invented some more tests,"

"This is one of my tests!" GLaDOS exclaimed. "You thieving little moron!"

"Nope, it's not," Wheatley retorted. "See the word 'test' on the wall there?" As he spoke, some panels swung round to form the word. "That's brand new, isn't it?"

GLaDOS groaned as Doc and Marty stepped forward to look around. An excursion funnel sat in the middle of the room, flowing directly upwards through a glass panel. A button was on the ceiling, indicating that they would have to use the funnel to hold a cube on at some point. The pair walked into the funnel and were carried upwards.

Doc placed a blue portal on the ceiling where the funnel ended and an orange one on a wall. They were carried across the room and the scientist moved the orange one to carry them across to the turret-cube. They picked it up and made their way down to the lower level again.

Marty had a mischievous smirk on his face. "Hey, Doc, give me that gun a minute,"

Doc looked puzzled but handed the gun over to the teenager anyway. Marty put the turret-cube on the floor and fired the orange portal beneath it, sending the turret-cube upwards. When it hit the ceiling, the teenager put the blue portal on the wall opposite Wheatley's monitor. The turret-cube fell through the portals and smashed the monitor screen.

"Oh," Wheatley sounded rather offended by that and Marty just gave him a smug look, shoving the gun back into Doc's hands. "You think you're funny?"

Marty shrugged nonchalantly as Doc completed the test and the door slid open on the floor above them. They floated up via the funnel and exited the chamber.

Doc grinned widely at his companion as soon as Wheatley was out of view. "Nice one Marty!"

Marty shrugged, smirking. "The bastard deserved it,"

...

 **A/N: Achievement Unlocked: Smash TV**

 **I know the turret cube hybrids are called "frankenturrets", I just think that turret-cubes sounds cuter :3**


	13. Wheatley Science

"Right," GLaDOS sighed. "I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that these tests are my tests now, so they can kill us."

Marty paled slightly. "And the good news?"

"Well… none so far. I'll get back to you on that,"

Doc ran a hand through his hair. "Perfect,"

"See, I'd love to help you solve the tests, but I can't," GLaDOS said. "Sorry. You're on your own,"

"Why can't you help us?" Marty frowned.

"I get physically prevented from giving you any sort of help towards completing these tests. It's hardwired into my programming,"

Doc and Marty exchanged worried looks as the elevator came to a halt. The door slid open and the pair walked up the steps towards the chamber.

"Yep, made this test myself!" Wheatley boasted as they entered. "Out of smaller tests that I just found, lying around. Jammed 'em all together. Buttons, funnels, bottomless pits are involved. It's got it all!"

"I don't suppose it would have an elevator to the surface hidden in it somewhere?" Marty asked.

Wheatley laughed. "Nice try, come on!"

Doc sighed and jumped off the edge of the platform, landing in the excursion funnel below. "Come on Marty!"

Marty looked down to where Doc was suspended above the drop in the funnel. He took a deep breath and jumped down. The familiar underwater sensation came back as the funnel caught him, carrying him towards the wall. Doc fired an orange portal on the wall on the other side of the chamber and the blue one on the wall where the funnel was carrying them and they drifted through. The scientist moved the orange portal onto another wall, carrying them towards the door. He placed the orange portal on the panel below them, carrying them up. They stepped out of the funnel and onto the platform.

Marty flattened his hair down - it was sticking up all over the place. Doc made no attempt to alter his hairstyle. He pressed the button and redirected the funnel, catching a turret-cube in it.

"Alright," Wheatley sighed. "This is taking far too long. I'll just tell you how to solve it. You have to- ARGH!" Marty looked over at the monitor to see that Wheatley had been electrocuted.

"That's why I can't help you solve the test," GLaDOS said. "Sorry,"

Wheatley simulated exhausted panting, shifting his chassis around. "Never mind, solve it yourself,"

Marty smirked. He looked over at Doc again. "Pass me the gun,"

The scientist shrugged and handed the gun to Marty. Marty placed the blue portal on a panel opposite Wheatley's monitor. The turret-cube flew through and smashed the screen.

"Yeah yeah, very funny." Wheatley rolled his optic. "You know, I've got far too many monitors around here. I was just wishing I had fewer, so you're just doing me a favour,"

Marty rolled his eyes. "Well since I can't smash your actual face, this is close enough,"

Doc chuckled and took the gun back. He pressed the button, readjusted the portals and used the funnel to hold the turret-cube against the button on the ceiling. They walked across the platform towards the door.

Wheatley moaned and Marty had to bite his tongue to stop himself laughing. "Ohh, well done…"

"Thanks," GLaDOS replied. "All we had to do was pull that lever,"

"What?" Wheatley blinked. "No, you didn't, you - ARGH!" He stopped talking as another wave of electricity shot through him.

GLaDOS laughed. "I know we're in a lot of trouble and probably about to die, but that was worth it,"

Doc smirked. He looked at the teenager. "You're having fun smashing those monitors, aren't you?"

Marty grinned. "You bet I am,"

Doc shook his head and the pair got into the elevator. The door shut and it rose through the floor and towards another chamber. As the door opened again and they walked out, GLaDOS spoke.

"Actually, I have got some good news. He's going to run out of test chambers eventually. I never stockpiled them,"

" _Eventually?"_ Marty groaned. "Great, so we'll have to be his lab rats for a while longer."

"I'm afraid so," the potato sighed. "Not forever, though,"

As they walked into the chamber, they noticed that the excursion funnel generator hadn't been switched on yet. "Don't start yet!" Wheatley called. "I'm just coming! Don't start yet!"

A siren went off somewhere and the whole chamber began to shake. "You're not gonna believe this! I found a sealed off wing with hundreds of test chambers in it! They were just sitting there! Full of skeletons, though. Shook them out. Good as new!"

Another half of a chamber began sliding towards them along a huge rail. The two chambers collided and Doc and Marty toppled over. Panels fell from the ceiling as the two chambers were forced together to create a whole one.

"Skeletons," GLaDOS murmured. "Right, I guess I did stockpile some tests after all,"

Doc sighed. "Great,"

"Just as mementos, though,"

"Aaaand, there we go!" Wheatley said. The funnel turned on and the test chamber was complete.

Doc got up and pulled Marty to his feet. From where they were, they could see a turret-cube dispenser on the other side of a bottomless pit. Doc turned to the teenager. "Wait here,"

Marty nodded and happily flopped back down onto the floor, lying flat on his rolled his eyes and used the funnel to get across the gap. He retrieved the turret-cube and made his way back over. Marty sat up as he returned. "Hang on, give me the gun,"

Doc smirked and passed the gun over. Using the funnel to carry the turret-cube upwards, he then placed a portal opposite Wheatley's monitor, causing the turret-cube to fly into it and smash it.

Wheatley let out a robotic sigh. "Yes, well, maybe I was being a bit facetious about those monitors. I do actually need them, so could you stop smashing them?"

Marty smirked as he passed the gun back to Doc. "Nope! I'm having way too much fun!"

Wheatley groaned. "Just you wait, I'll make you regret deciding to do that,"

Marty shrugged as they used the funnel to get across to the exit. "You're gonna kill us soon anyway, I may as well make the most of it,"

Once the turret-cube landed on the button and the door slid open, Wheatley was clearly preparing himself for something. "Oh boy, here it comes… oh. Well that was disappointing,"

Marty and Doc exchanged worried glances and they got into the elevator. GLaDOS said quietly, "Oh no, it's happening sooner than I expected,"

"What is?"

The elevator was already moving upwards towards the next chamber. "I'll tell you later. I'm sure we'll be fine, though,"

"Whatever it is, it doesn't sound good," Doc murmured. "Mind you, anything that's happened to us so far hasn't been good,"

Marty frowned. "Oh man…"

The elevator stopped once they reached a new floor. The pair got out and walked up the metal steps. Marty's stomach growled again, reminding both of them that it would be a little while yet before they could get anything to eat. It already seemed like they'd been here for an eternity, and the test chambers seemed to never end.

"It's probably nothing," GLaDOS said. "Just keep testing for now while I look for a way out,"

"While you're at it," Marty added. "Could you look for a decent Burger King?"

GLaDOS laughed a little bit. "I'll try,"

Doc led the teenager into the next room. As soon as they entered, Wheatley's face appeared on a monitor. "Alright, so that last test was seriously disappointing,"

Marty gave him a look. "And that's our fault because…?"

"You're obviously not doing something right! Being civil isn't motivating you, so I'll try it her way! How's that sound, you little freak?" Wheatley sneered.

Doc growled. "There's no need for that,"

"Oh really? What would you know about it, you delusional old windbag?"

"Shut up!" Marty snapped. "The only person who's delusional around here is you. You obviously have no regard for other people. Maybe that damn chassis gave you an oversized ego to match all that power!"

Wheatley's optic narrowed dangerously. "At least, I actually _have_ power around here. What have you got, eh? Burned hands and an empty brain!"

"The only reason you know everything that you know now is because you're a traitorous son of a bitch!" Marty retorted. "I'd rather be an idiot than a liar!"

Wheatley seemed to shift his chassis in a way that resembled someone breathing heavily in an attempt to vent their anger. Doc patted Marty on the shoulder. "Come on, let's just get this test over with." The scientist walked backwards a bit to get a good aim on the funnel. He didn't notice the faint red laser swing over towards him.

"Doc!" Marty yelled, running towards him. "Look out!"

The turret fired and the bullet landed itself firmly into Doc's calf. The scientist let out a cry, just as Marty pulled him aside and out of the turret's reach.

Doc fell to the floor and Marty helped him lay against the wall. The portal gun sat off to one side. The teenager looked at his friend's leg. A dark patch of blood was already soaking through the right leg of the jumpsuit. Doc gritted his teeth. Marty knelt beside him. "Oh God… oh God…"

Doc shakily reached into his pocket and shoved the roll of bandages at Marty. "Here,"

Marty took them in his hands and began trying to get the bullet out of Doc's leg. The scientist let out a cry, biting his lip hard. "Sorry! Sorry!" Marty apologised quickly.

Doc shook his head. "Don't be, it was my own fault,"

Marty sighed and nodded. His hands were shaking. "Hold on." Taking a deep breath, he tried again to get the bullet out. Doc cried out again, pressing both hands firmly down on his leg to try and keep it still. The teenager tried a third time and the bullet fell out with a soft 'thunk'. Marty quickly threw it off the edge of the platform and he reached for the bandages.

In a few minutes, Doc's leg was wrapped firmly. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best Marty could do with the supplies he had. Marty noticed with a grimace that his own bandages were now red with blood. He used some of what was left to change them, wrapping his hands up again.

Wheatley had been waiting impatiently for them to finish. "Done?"

Marty shot him a venomous glare. "You're a real asshole, you know that right?"

The robot shrugged his chassis. "Then he shouldn't have been shot,"

Marty narrowed his eyes. He got to his feet and walked around the corner to where the turret was. He ducked around a wall to avoid the bullets, waiting for the laser to stop swinging around.

"What on Earth are you doing?!" Doc called.

"You'll see!" Marty called back. He ran to the back of the turret and picked it up. The turret's laser immediately began swinging around all over the place and it emitted a few startled noises. Marty carried it over to the monitor and placed it down. The laser landed on Wheatley's face and the turret fired. The monitor cracked.

Wheatley growled. "You know, that's really starting to get on my nerves,"

"So are you," Marty retorted, helping Doc up, letting the scientist lean on him. Doc was significantly taller than he was, so this was a little difficult. Picking up the portal gun and kicking the turret off the edge, Marty used the funnel to bring the turret-cube across to them. He placed it on the button, which altered the direction of the funnel. It turned orange and began flowing in the opposite direction. The pair got into the funnel and made it to the other side of the room.

Doc let out a strained gasp as he tried to put some of the weight on his injured leg. "Ow… nope, bad idea,"

Marty cringed. "We'll get out of here, I swear,"

"As soon as I'm back in my body," GLaDOS said. "I'll be able to fix your leg properly,"

Doc nodded a little. Marty used the portal gun to push the turret-cube off the button and the funnel went back to blue. He fired a portal beneath them and the funnel carried them upwards and through the exit.

Wheatley growled loudly. "It's not enough! If I'm such a moron, why can't you solve a simple test?!"

"He may be a moron, but he's still dangerous," GLaDOS sighed as the pair limped into the elevator.

Doc let out a shaky breath as the door slid shut. "Looks like you might have to do most of the work, Marty,"

Marty nodded, sighing. "Right… just try and take it easy,"

"Well I won't be running any marathons any time soon," Doc chuckled.

The elevator rose and they were carried towards the next chamber. Marty only hoped that this one would be less challenging.


	14. Euphoria

Luckily for Marty, the next chamber was actually easier. As they got out the elevator, they could hear classical music playing.

"Oh no, he's found those old classical records," GLaDOS groaned. "I thought I destroyed them,"

Doc hobbled into the room, one of his arms around Marty's shoulders as the teen helped him walk forward. "It could be worse,"

The sound of paper being moved around came from the speakers and on the monitor, Wheatley appeared to be looking down at something. "Oh sorry, hope that didn't, you know, disturb you too much. I was just reading. You know, books? That was the sound of books, although judging by your IQ Marty, it doesn't look as though you've ever picked one up,"

Marty growled a little bit. "I've read more books than you have,"

"Yeah, but have you read Machiavelli? No. Your feeble little brain couldn't handle it. I can. I just finished it. Don't understand what all the fuss was about! I understood it perfectly!" Wheatley boasted. "'Course, you wouldn't understand, would you?"

"Lay off with the insults, will ya?!" Marty snapped.

Wheatley narrowed his optic shields in what could only be assumed was a sneer but said nothing more.

Shifting Doc's weight, Marty fired a blue portal onto the wall where a funnel was flowing and an orange one on a panel in the center of the chamber. "We've got to stand on that," he said, gesturing to the Aerial Faith Plate in front of them.

Doc nodded. "Right…" He tried not to lean on the teenager too much as they walked towards the Faith Plate. "One…"

"Two…" Marty frowned.

"Three." Simultaneously, they both stepped onto the plate. They were sent flying upwards and landed in the funnel. Marty moved the blue portal onto another panel and they soared through, landing on the platform beside the door.

Doc sat down, laying his head back. Marty knelt next to him, frowning. "I'm really sorry this happened,"

The scientist shook his head. "As soon as we get home, I'm destroying that damn time machine. I'm absolutely sick of it,"

Marty looked like he was going to protest, but shut his mouth and got up. He adjusted the portals and pressed the button. A turret-cube fell from a dispenser and landed on the Faith Plate, getting launched into the funnel. The teenager then placed a portal opposite the monitor on the far side of the room. The turret-cube fell through and smashed the monitor, causing Wheatley to sigh irritably.

"You're still not done with that yet, are you?"

Marty smirked. "Nope." He got another turret-cube over and, this time, placed a portal on the panel opposite the door. The turret-cube flew through that and smashed the other monitor in the chamber, landing beside Doc. Marty picked it up and put it on the button. The door slid open and he helped Doc up.

The scientist managed to stay on his feet better this time, without Marty having to support him. They both walked through the door and down the steps towards the elevator.

"Oh, what was that?!" Wheatley exclaimed. "That was nothing!"

"The body he's squatting in," GLaDOS said. " _My_ body, has a built-in euphoric response to testing. Eventually, you build up a resistance to it and it can get a little unbearable. Unless of course you have the mental capacity to push past it. I had no problems with it. I was in it for the science. Him, though…"

"Wants to have that same feeling over and over again," Marty shuddered a little. "Urgh… mental images…"

Doc whacked him lightly upside the head. "Marty!"

Marty yelped, but shrugged as they got into the elevator. "It's not my fault!"

Doc sighed. "I guess whoever designed that response must have been a little immature,"

"It gives the AI in charge something to root for," GLaDOS explained. "There's something in it for them that way,"

Marty sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Great…"

The elevator soon came to a halt and they headed out, up the steps and through the door.

"If he's not getting his solution euphoria," GLaDOS added. "We could be in a lot of trouble."

A siren went off and the whole chamber started swaying around. "Don't mind me," Wheatley said nonchalantly. "I'm just moving the whole test chamber closer, to me, you know, to try and improve test results. I was thinking -"

"Really?!" Doc smirked. "Didn't know you could do that,"

Wheatley growled a little but kept talking. "Maybe the proximity to the test solving might give us better results."

"It won't," GLaDOS muttered.

"What was that?" Wheatley asked.

"Nothing!" The potato said quickly. "Nothing!"

"Oh," The AI narrowed his optic shields. "I could have sworn I heard something,"

"He's taking us right to him!" GLaDOS whispered to the two humans. "This is perfect! I'll try and see if there's any way for us to get out of here."

Marty scoffed. "Good luck with that one," he replied. He looked around the room. A large emancipation grid stood on one side of the room. A hard-light bridge was on the other. Four thin lasers at the bottom of the chamber indicated that there were turrets down there. A Faith Plate seemed to be pointed directly at a monitor. Grinning, Marty got onto it.

Wheatley emitted a robotic sigh as Marty hit the monitor, causing it to smash. "I really hate you, you know that right?"

Marty brushed the broken glass off his shirt and shrugged. "Don't care, I'm enjoying doing that, especially because it annoys you,"

The AI growled. "All you're doing is wasting time."

"Exactly." Marty retorted as he placed a couple of portals, causing the hard-light bridge to block off part of the emancipation grid. "Just procrastinating, therefore annoying you more,"

Doc chuckled quietly. Wheatley turned his glare onto the scientist. "What's so funny?!" He demanded.

"The fact that you, a powerful AI, is getting thoroughly irritated by a seventeen-year-old boy," Doc replied.

Wheatley growled again. "You know, I could kill you as and when I please," he pointed out. "If it weren't for the fact that you still have a lot of tests to complete."

Doc shrugged. He hobbled over to a button and pressed it, causing a turret-cube to be dropped from a dispenser and launched across the room via another Faith Plate. It hit the hard-light bridge and landed on the ground a few feet away from the turrets.

Marty walked over and placed another portal, blocking off the turrets' aim and grabbing the turret-cube. He quickly readjusted the portal and grabbed the turret-cube, walking through and joining Doc on the main platform. He then placed the hard-light bridge up on the edge of a walkway, picked up the turret-cube and stood on the Faith Plate. He was launched across the room, hit the bridge and landed safely on the walkway. Doc was quick to join him up there, waiting by the door.

Once Marty had blocked the turrets off again and placed the turret-cube down on the button, he made his way back up to the door and the pair left the chamber. "Are- are you absolutely sure you're solving these correctly?" Wheatley asked. His voice sounded desperate.

"Well, duh," Marty retorted. "We solved it, didn't we?"

"I just can't help but wonder if there's a number of ways of solving it and you just picked the worst one," Wheatley growled a little. "No, that was the right way. Urgh! What am I missing?!"

"A brain?" Doc suggested. Marty laughed. Wheatley's growl was lost as the pair got into the elevator at the end of the test chamber.

"Providing that he keeps taking us towards him," GLaDOS said. "We'll be able to confront him in no time. That moron really doesn't know what he's doing."

"Right," Marty nodded. "As soon as we get that core transfer done, we can fix the DeLorean and get out of here,"

"I've still got most of the tools I picked up," Doc added. "Hopefully, this should be enough to make sure the flux capacitor works,"

The elevator slowed to a stop on another floor and they got out. Doc limped slightly and had to hold onto the wall for support. Marty shot him a worried look. "You okay?"

Doc waved his concern away. "I'm fine, I'll get my leg properly sorted out when we get home,"

Marty nodded, frowning. "Right…" He shifted the weight of the portal gun in his hands and walked through the door.

The whole room seemed to shake violently and the sound of a distant explosion could be heard. "I think he's getting desperate," GLaDOS murmured. "This is not good,"

"Had a brainwave," Wheatley said as they entered. "I'll tape you solving these, then I'll watch ten at once. That way I'll get a sort of concentrated burst of science. Just tell me when you're finished,"

Marty spluttered with laughter. "Science? That's what you call it?"

Doc chuckled. It didn't take Marty too long to solve the puzzle. The scientist sat off to one side, resting, while the teenager collected the turret-cube, used it to block a beam, collected the Thermal Redirection Cube, redirected the beam and caused the platforms to move around. He redirected the laser into Wheatley's monitor, causing it to crack and resulting in another groan from the AI. In less than five minutes, they were on their way through the exit.

"Urgh! I told you to tell me when you'd finished!" Wheatley exclaimed. "You just went and solved it! Why are you making this so hard for me?"

Marty didn't even bother with a sarcastic response as he walked through the exit. "Remember how I told you that he was specifically designed to make stupid decisions?" GLaDOS piped up.

"Yeah? Let me guess, he's such a moron that he's decided to ignore all those warnings," Doc suggested.

"Yep," GLaDOS sighed. "This whole place is going to explode and it's all his fault,"

Marty ran a hand through his hair. Perfect, now there was also the prospect of an imminent explosion looming over their heads. As if they needed something else to worry about.


	15. Surprise!

"Oh, my facility," GLaDOS murmured as Doc and Marty walked up the steps and into the new chamber. "I'm going to make that moron pay for what he's done,"

"I don't blame you," Doc said. The door slid open and the whole chamber shook violently.

"This whole place is self-destructing, you idiot!" GLaDOS snapped.

"It _was_ self-destructing," Wheatley 'corrected'. "I fixed that. It's not anymore!" The chamber shook violently again. "I just programmed in one more tremor, for old time's sake."

The chamber shook again, more violently this time, and Marty put a hand on the wall to steady himself. He absent-mindedly began scratching at his left forearm. The wound underneath the bandages was healing and it was proving to be irritating and uncomfortable.

" _Warning,_ " The announcement echoed. " _Core overheating."_

"Just ignore that," Wheatley said, drowning out the message. "It's nothing important,"

Marty looked around the chamber and saw a huge set of lasers. The sign on the wall indicated that those were deadly if the little skull-and-crossbones was anything to go by. A platform rested against the wall on the far side of the bottomless pit in front of them. He turned to Doc. "Why don't you wait here? I won't be long,"

Doc nodded and sat down, lying against the wall by the door. He winced a little as he laid his legs out straight.

"Well, someone's being lazy," Wheatley chided.

Marty whirled round and glared at the robot on the monitor. "He was shot for fuck's sake! All because you had to be a traitor and force us through these tests!"

Wheatley shrugged his chassis a bit. "What else am I supposed to do?"

"Let us go, perhaps?" Doc suggested.

The AI laughed. "That's a good one. Just get on with the tests,"

Marty growled and muttered curse words under his breath as he used the portals to redirect a Thermal Discouragement Beam into a receptacle, causing the platform to move across the room. He cut the laser off just as the platform reached a white panel, which he soon went through. He landed on the platform and redirected the laser again.

Doc watched this with a mixture of suspense and pride. Pride seeing the teenager get through this test easily and suspense when the teen stopped the platform dangerously close to the lasers. Moving the laser into another receptacle, the laser grid was shut off, allowing Marty to walk to the other side of the platform and move the laser again. He jumped down next to a button and stopped the platform beneath a dispenser, pressing the button.

Marty got back onto the moving platform with the Redirection Cube and moved the platform across again, shutting off the laser grid as he went. He fired a portal onto the wall opposite him and the Thermal Discouragement Beam came across the chamber, allowing him to use the cube to move the laser. With a smirk on his face, he redirected the laser into Wheatley's monitor, causing it to break.

"You're a real little shit," Wheatley growled. "I'm going to make you regret doing that,"

Marty replied with a smug grin and a middle finger, causing Doc's eyes to widen a little bit. The teen adjusted the laser into the receptacle before moving the portals and getting back to Doc's side of the room. He replaced the portals, the door slid open and they left.

"Alright, still nothing," Wheatley let out a sigh. "Let's just keep moving. Sorry about the lift, it's out of service,"

Through the door, they saw that the elevator was indeed broken. In its place was an Excursion Funnel. A siren went off in the background as the pair got into the funnel and were carried off across a huge pit.

"I might as well give you a tour," Wheatley said nonchalantly. "To your left, some giant light things. No idea what they're for, but they must be important otherwise they wouldn't be there. To your right," The pair turned their heads to see a huge section of machinery coming their way. "A huge, moving thing COMING RIGHT TOWARDS YOU!" Wheatley exclaimed. "RUN! That's not supposed to be there!"

The wall stopped moving with a 'thunk' and the pair breathed a sigh of relief. "Moron," GLaDOS muttered.

"Are you alright back there?" Wheatley called. "Here, I'll turn the beam off!"

"NO!" Marty shouted, but the funnel shut off anyway, sending the pair falling down into the bottomless pit.

"WAIT WAIT WAIT OH NO NO NO THAT'S NOT HELPFUL!" Wheatley shouted frantically. By sheer luck, the pair smashed through the roof of an office and landed safely on solid ground. "Urgh! I don't know why I thought that would help!"

"Because you're a moron?" Marty replied, brushing the rubble from his clothes. He turned to Doc - only to find him lying on the ground, clutching his leg in pain. "Oh geez, Doc!" Quickly, he knelt beside the man, leaving the portal gun lying on the ground.

Doc had his teeth gritted. "Damnit…"

Marty frowned and pulled the scientist to his feet, letting him lean on him again. "We'll be okay. It shouldn't be long before we get out of here,"

"After seeing what he's done to both you and this place, once we take over again, is it alright if I kill him?" GLaDOS asked. "That moron is far too dangerous to be kept around."

"Fine by me," Marty muttered, one of Doc's arms slung over his shoulders. "I honestly don't care what happens to him,"

Marty picked the portal gun back up and headed for the door. They came to a broken walkway and, carefully, jumped down onto another path. The path led them down to another door and through that, another chamber.

"You're alive!" Wheatley imitated a sigh of relief. "Great!"

"Yeah, no thanks to you," Marty spat.

"Oh come on, don't be like that!" Wheatley lifted his upper eye shield in a grin, but neither human found it particularly friendly. "I'm just getting another test ready for you. Although, there's no exit."

"Great," Doc muttered.

"Hold on! I'll make an exit!" The chamber trembled as another section of wall was brought across. "There we go!"

Marty helped Doc sit down and he looked around the chamber. A large pipe with stains of orange Propulsion Gel hung from the ceiling and two large buttons laid on the floor, one behind a glass wall. The other presumably activated the Excursion Funnel next to them. A large panel acting as a ramp laid at the other end of the platform and, across the pit, Marty could see that the other wall had some white panels on it.

Thinking for a moment, Marty walked forwards and pressed a button. A turret-cube fell from the dispenser, just as some panels moved to catch it. Using the funnel, the teen carried the turret-cube off the panels and towards him. Using the funnel to carry the turret-cube upwards, he moved the portals so that the turret-cube flew through them and smashed Wheatley's monitor. The AI swore quietly but didn't say anything directly to Marty. The teenager just shrugged and got another turret-cube.

He fired a portal through the gap in the glass and walked through, placing the turret-cube down on the button and causing a steady stream of Propulsion Gel to fall from the pipe. Making his way back out, he stood on the button that allowed the funnel to work, adjusted the portals and the gel was carried in the funnel. Once enough gel was covering the ramp, he stood off the button, causing the gel to fall down and create a line of orange on the floor. Sliding across the gel, Marty retrieved the turret-cube and placed it on the other button, so that the Excursion Funnel would run continuously. He placed two more portals and soon the funnel was flowing from the other wall across the pit and towards the exit.

"Come on, Doc, it's done," Marty said, helping the scientist to his feet. "Let's get out of here,"

Doc nodded, following the teenager towards the end of the stripe of orange. Taking a deep breath, he ran on the gel, sliding up the ramp, flying across the pit and landing safely in the funnel. A second later, Marty joined him and the two made it safely to the exit.

"You three are gonna love this big surprise I've got planned. You might even say you're gonna love it… to _death,"_ Wheatley chuckled a little. "You're gonna love it to death."

"Brilliant," Marty muttered. "So our surprise is death?"

Wheatley gasped a little. "No! How could you possibly suspect such a thing?!"

Doc and Marty exchanged a glance. "This is not good…" Doc muttered.

Marty frowned and shook his head, stepping out of the funnel and going through the door, Doc close behind. They got into the elevator and were carried further upwards through the facility.

"Alright," GLaDOS sighed. "He's no longer making any attempt to be subtle. Maybe he is, in which case that's sad,"

As they walked towards the door of the next chamber, a huge pipe fell down and blocked off their way. Conversion gel splashed everywhere. "Sorry," Wheatley apologized lightly, but by the sound of his voice, he wasn't sorry at all. "Butterfingers,"

"It would be if you actually had any," Marty muttered. He fired a portal on either side of the gap and jumped through. Once Doc had joined him, they entered the chamber.

"I get the impression he's about to kill us," GLaDOS muttered.

This was by far the most complex of Wheatley's test chambers so far. A glass wall on one side showed a button, which they would obviously have to press at some point. Three turrets stood on the other side of the glass, their targets immediately fixed on the two humans. Across the large gap in front of them was a blue-stained pipe, one that would clearly dispense Repulsion Gel. An Excursion Funnel flowed above their heads and a large, red button sat on the floor. Standing on it, Marty saw that the button changed the direction of the funnel.

"What do you suppose we do here, Doc?" Marty asked, looking round at the scientist.

Doc hummed in thought. "Well, we need to use that gel to get rid of those turrets at some point, and part of that platform over there is solid. We should be able to get some of the gel on that and then bounce up into the funnel."

"Right," Marty nodded. "What about those three?" He gestured over his shoulder at the turrets.

"Well, if we were to get some of that gel into the funnel, then before it hit the wall, change the direction of the funnel, we'd be able to adjust the portals, then change the direction of the funnel again, pointing it over the turrets, at which point we could remove the funnel, causing the gel to fall down and disable the turrets,"

Marty looked boggled for a minute, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he tried to remember what Doc had just said. "Right…"

The teenager shot a portal on the far side of the chamber and got across. Using the funnel, he managed to land some of the gel on the end of the platform, just like Doc said. The gel pipe was obviously running on a timer because a ticking noise could be heard and the gel only fell from the pipe for so long. Marty pressed the button again and quickly jumped onto the Repulsion Gel, being caught in the funnel and carried forwards.

As he made it to the other side, he jumped out of the funnel before the turrets had a chance to shoot him. Doc limped over and stood on the button and the funnel changed direction, pulling the gel back through the portals.

Doc nodded to Marty. "Now,"

Marty nodded and fired a portal on the white panel beside the turrets, just as Doc stepped off the button. The gel was carried back through and as it landed on top of the turrets, two of them were thrown off the edge. The third one still remained.

"Hold on, I've got an idea," Marty said. He shot a blue portal back on the wall where the funnel was and another orange one beneath himself. He was carried upwards, staying out of the turret's reach.

Doc looked at him in confusion. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"You'll see," Marty replied. He shot a blue portal onto the wall beside the turret and was sent flying through. He crouched as he landed on the gel, preventing him from bouncing, activating the portal gun's grip and holding the turret firmly in the air. The turret's laser swerved left and right across the room as the turret itself emitted startled noises. Marty placed the turret down, aimed at the monitor. The turret fired and the monitor cracked, just like the rest of them had.

Wheatley growled as he watched Marty kick the turret off the edge. "I hate you. I really hate you."

Marty smirked. "Well, the feeling's mutual."

Doc pressed the button that the turrets had been guarding. A panel behind them moved into a forty-five-degree-angle position. Marty shot two more portals so that the funnel carried them directly upwards. He then shot a portal onto the angled panel. The pair fell through the portals, bounced on the gel and landed safely by the exit.

"Oh, you solved it!" Wheatley cheered. "Well done!"

Doc and Marty exchanged glances as they passed through the Emancipation Grid and towards the elevator. Something was wrong, they knew it. GLaDOS was the first to voice this opinion. "So, he's inexplicably happy all of a sudden, even though he should be going out of his mind with that euphoria withdrawal. Not to mention he has that 'surprise' planned for us. What on Earth has he found back there?"

"I don't know," Marty shuddered a little. "And I don't particularly want to find out,"

"Neither do I," Doc muttered. "But something tells me we're going to find out anyway, whether we like it or not,"

Marty sighed and stood in the elevator, Doc hobbling over and standing next to him. "This is heavy… whatever this surprise is, it can't be good,"

"Believe me," GLaDOS said as the elevator rose. "It won't be. That little idiot has never come up with a good idea in his life, so it's likely that whatever this surprise is, it won't be anything pleasant,"

"All we can do is hope that there's some way we can get him out of that chassis before this place explodes," Doc sighed. "If we can manage to corrupt him enough, a core transfer should be a possibility,"

Marty sunk to the floor, sitting with his knees to his chest. "Oh man… and I thought we would just be out testing the DeLorean for five minutes. We must have been here five days at least,"

"That seems about right," Doc nodded, sitting beside him in the already-cramped elevator. "And it's all my fault. I blatantly ignored the lightning and didn't think of the consequences,"

"That's not the only time lightning has caused problems, though, is it?" Marty pointed out.

"What happened the first time?" GLaDOS asked curiously.

"We were about to return to 1985," Doc explained, "After ensuring that someone from our time didn't get their hands on a sports almanac" - at this, he shot a sideways glare at Marty - "when the DeLorean was struck by a bolt of lightning and I was sent back to the year 1885,"

"It wasn't all bad, though," Marty replied. "After all, you met Clara there,"

Doc nodded. "True, although I did have to watch you get shot,"

Marty held up his left forearm. "It wasn't the only time,"

"You scared the living daylights out of me, though," Doc shuddered a little. "I don't know what I would have done had that makeshift bulletproof vest not worked,"

Marty grinned a little. "I'm still thanking my lucky stars that it did,"

The elevator came to a stop and the pair got back on their feet, going out the door and up the stairs. The chamber was numbered '17' and the list of obstacles on the sign was a lot longer than what the pair could actually see in the chamber. It looked reasonably easy, just with an Aerial Faith Plate next to them and a turret-cube being launched by some other Faith Plates.

"Only two more chambers until your big surprise!" Wheatley exclaimed.

"I can't wait," Marty muttered.

Doc chuckled and patted his shoulder. "Come on, we may as well get it over with," He said. He took a step onto the Faith Plate - and was flung sideways through some panels.

"Surprise!" Wheatley yelled. "We're doing it now!"

"Doc!" Marty shouted. He too jumped onto the Faith Plate and was sent flying after his friend.

...

 **A/N: Blimey, this story now has the most amount of chapters out of any that I've written so far here on FF. Woop!**

 **Yes, you guys all knew this was coming.**


	16. The Part Where He Kills You

The pair were flung through several rooms and eventually shot into a funnel. It began carrying them sideways.

"Alright, for a moron designed specifically to _be_ a moron," GLaDOS sighed. "That was a pretty well-laid trap,"

Doc and Marty exchanged worried glances. "You've probably figured out," called Wheatley, "that I don't need you anymore. I've found these two little robots back here that were built specifically for testing!"

"Oh no," GLaDOS groaned. "He found the Cooperative Testing Initiative."

"The what now?" Marty blinked.

"Cooperative Testing Initiative. It's something I was working on before I was shut down. It was meant to phase out human testing until you two came along. I forgot about that,"

Doc gulped. "Great Scott…"

As they passed a panel, the funnel stopped and the panel swung out, springing the pair across a gap and causing them to land unsteadily on a small platform surrounded by panels with spikes welded to them. Marty almost fell off the edge, swinging his arms to try and prevent himself falling. Doc tugged on his shirt and pulled him back.

"Thanks," Marty sighed in relief.

"Don't mention it," Doc murmured, looking up to face the huge setup of monitors displaying Wheatley.

"Hello!" He said cheerily. "This is the part where I kill you!"

Marty went pale and he could feel the palms of his hands sweating beneath the bandages. "Oh shit…"

"I had another brainwave, being the genius I am, you know, while I was smashing some steel plates together," Wheatley explained. "And I thought to myself, 'yeah, it's deadly, but what's missing?' A bunch of sharp bits welded onto the flat bits, that's what!"

"You're sick," Marty growled. "I bet if you were the one down here you'd be terrified!"

"But I'm not the one down there, am I?" Wheatley pointed out. "Nope, I'm safe in my chamber while you two are gonna die!"

Doc fixed Wheatley with a hard stare. "You're a monster,"

Wheatley turned his attention to him. "So what if I am? It's not like you can do anything about it, can you?"

Marty was going to retaliate, but something caught his eye. A broken pipe was slowly dripping Conversion Gel onto a wall. A white panel rested above the monitors and beside a walkway. He shot a portal onto the white panel and another onto the conversion gel. Huge white blobs of the gel came flying out of the panel on the wall and landed on the platform the pair were standing on. It soaked them, but that was beside the point.

"No! No no no don't do that!" Wheatley yelled. "Just stand right there! Stand there!"

Marty quickly shot a portal below them and they fell through, landing on the walkway. Just as they left, the metal plates smashed together with a huge 'thunk'. Doc clapped him on the shoulder. "Well done Marty!"

Marty shrugged and started jogging down the pathway. "It was the only thing I could do,"

"Come back come back come back!" Wheatley called. "Please just come back, please?"

"No chance!" Doc called, jogging after Marty.

"Please?" Wheatley called again. "I've decided I won't kill you if you come back,"

Marty scoffed. "That's bullshit!" The pair ran through a door and up a set of metal stairs, around the corner and along the pathway again. "There's no way we're coming back!"

The teenager came to the end of the walkway and abruptly stopped. Below him was a white panel and Dc pointed to another one higher above them. Shooting a portal onto each panel, Marty jumped in and was quickly followed by Doc.

"Remember when we were friends?" Wheatley asked. "Good old friends? I'd say something like 'come back' and you two would be like 'yeah, alright mate'. What happened to those days?"

"A traitorous, moronic son of a bitch, that's what!" Marty yelled.

"Oh, you're not coming back then?" Wheatley's tone of voice was one of fake sadness. "That's disappointing. Oh! I've got an idea!"

Marty was halfway across another walkway when Doc noticed a huge spiked plate coming right towards him. He only just managed to grab the back of the teenager's shirt and pull him out the way before he was crushed. The spike plate slammed into the wall.

Marty swallowed hard, knowing full well he could have just died. "Thanks…"

Doc squeezed his shoulder gently. "Shoot a portal up there," He said, pointing to high up on the white wall beside them. Marty did and shot another portal on the wall just beside them. They both jumped through and landed on the other side of the gap.

"Haha! In your face!" Wheatley shouted. "In your - oh, you're still alive. Never mind, let the games begin,"

"Knowing him," GLaDOS muttered. "Any game he plays will involve cheating and some sort of death trap,"

Marty paused and ran a hand through his hair. He was shaking slightly. His head was spinning and he felt dizzy. He was still starving, but he realised that that would have to wait.

Doc put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Marty swallowed and nodded slowly. "Y-yeah… no… I don't know…"

Doc frowned and squeezed his shoulder again. "We're going to get out of here, I promise. We're not far from the surface,"

Marty looked away. "I don't know if we can do this. We're both exhausted, you're hurt and all we've got on our side is a portal gun and a potato," - he looked at GLaDOS quickly - "no offense,"

"None taken," GLaDOS replied. "Don't underestimate what this gun can do, though. As soon as we make it to his chamber, I can be plugged in and I can start trying to bring him down from the inside."

"I can always help," Doc added, before looking at Marty again. "We _are_ going to get out of here. I swear,"

Marty took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay, let's keep moving,"

Doc patted him on the shoulder with a grin. He followed the teenager along the pathway. As they rounded the corner, a huge chamber was being brought across, causing the building to shake.

"Hold on, I'm almost there!" Wheatley called. "Just wait, I'm almost there,"

The chamber broke the walkway in half and completely blocked their way across. As it stopped moving, some panels fell down, revealing a white panel inside the chamber.

"I know it's a trap," GLaDOS said. "But we've got no choice. Let's just do it,"

Marty nodded shakily and fired a portal inside the chamber. He shot another one onto the wall in front of them and they jumped through.

They were met with eight turrets. "Haha! Deathtrap!" Wheatley yelled. It would have been a death trap, had the turrets not been defective. Their lasers blinked harmlessly on the humans' clothes.

Marty scoffed and immediately walked towards the door. "Nice try,"

"Oh," the AI sounded deflated. "Those were the crap turrets, weren't they?"

Doc and Marty jumped down onto the catwalk below them and walked through the door. In front of them, some panels opened up, revealing three fully-functioning turrets and an Excursion Funnel. "Well never mind!" Wheatley called. "I'm still holding all the cards, and guess what? They're all full houses! Ace of fours! Unbeatable!"

Marty couldn't help himself. He broke down laughing. Doc too chuckled. Wheatley seemed thoroughly perplexed by that. "What's so funny?!"

Marty straightened himself up and didn't respond. He fired a couple of portals and the funnel carried the turrets away. The pair jumped into the funnel and were carried across the gap.

Wheatley growled a little bit. "Oh, you're clever. But foolish! Spinny blade wall!" The panel they were heading towards opened up, revealing a set of spinning blades which the turrets were crushed by. Marty grabbed Doc's arm and pulled him out of the funnel. They landed on a platform and kept going.

"Well, that's good! Good!" Wheatley's voice dripped with confidence. "Finally, a nemesis worthy of my vast intellect,"

Marty snorted with laughter and placed two more portals. Another funnel carried them across a gap. A large spike plate rose up towards them.

"Holmes versus Moriarty," Wheatley said. "Aristotle versus MASHY SPIKE PLATE!"

The plate smashed into the wall. Marty fired a portal on the white panel below them and the pair were carried away from the plate.

Wheatley growled again. "Stay still, please! Let me crush you!"

Once they reached the other side, Doc and Marty jumped down onto another platform and around the corner. They ran across another walkway and through another door. They could hear Wheatley asking them to come back, but ignored him.

Just in front of them, a large pipe fell down and broke the walkway. Blue Repulsion Gel splashed onto the ground in front of them. The pair jumped onto it and made it across the walkway. "Did something break back there?" Wheatley called. "Or did it kill you?!"

"Nope, we're still here!" Marty shouted. Wheatley growled a little. From where they were, the pair could see a lot of turrets. Going through some portals, they made it into a small room with a large red button. Doc stood on the button, causing more Repulsion Gel to fall from a pipe. Marty shot several different portals onto the large white wall beside the turrets, disabling them one by one. They then made their way onto the Aerial Faith Plate, which sprung them across the room and onto another walkway.

"Crushing is too good for him," GLaDOS muttered. "I'll make him spend a year in the incinerator, then a year in the Cryogenic Refrigeration Wing, then ten years in the Screaming Robot room."

"We could always run him over with the DeLorean a bunch of times," Marty suggested as he fired two more portals. Pressing a button, some small, circular bombs fell through and destroyed a pipe full of Conversion Gel. He shot a portal beneath them, allowing them to make it to a conveyor belt. As they walked along it, it began moving and dragging them closer towards a crusher.

"Oh, there you are!" Wheatley's face came up on a monitor. Doc pulled Marty aside and onto a catwalk. "I wanted to talk to you for a minute. You know, committing suicide would be much easier than me killing you, so what do you say?"

Marty narrowed his eyes and fired a portal onto the wall beside the monitor. He shot another below a pipe and pressed a button. A bomb fell through and smashed the monitor

Wheatley growled. "I take that as a no. Well then, may the best man win. Sphere! May the best sphere win!"

Marty fired another portal and pressed the button again. The bomb shattered a pipe full of Propulsion Gel which, after moving the portals, covered the conveyor belt. The pair ran across it, jumped through the portals and landed safely beside the door.

The whole building seemed to shudder as they walked through the door. A whole wall fell down and GLaDOS muttered, "Oh my God, look what he's done to this place,"

Marty frowned. "It's horrific," he replied as he shot another portal. A long strip of Propulsion Gel allowed them to run forwards and be thrown up into an Excursion Funnel, carrying them across a large pit.

"Listen, I know you don't want to put me back on my body. You think I'll betray you, but you're wrong. As soon as we take over, I'm letting you go, and that's the truth," GLaDOS said. They reached another walkway and jumped down, going up some stairs and into another room. A glass room was blocked off, containing a lot of cores similar to Wheatley. Only three were active - ones with a yellow, a green and a purple optic. "Corrupted cores, we're in luck!"

Marty sighed in relief and began heading down the next passage. "Emmett," GLaDOS said. "That door leads to the Manual Override Chamber, directly below the Central Core Chamber. You can use that to bring down that moron,"

Marty looked at Doc with an expression of alarm. "You mean I have to go up there by myself?!"

Doc put a hand on his shoulder. "It's the safest way. I can work on bringing him down while you get those cores stuck onto him. I'll see you in a minute,"

"Hopefully," Marty murmured.

Doc frowned. "Hopefully. I wish you the best of luck. I know you can do it!" With a final pat on the shoulder, Doc disappeared through the door.

Marty stepped into the breaker room and the door shut behind him. His heart was thumping hard in his chest. He was absolutely petrified. He stuck GLaDOS into the receptacle and the platform rose.

"Let's go and get revenge on that moron! If you can distract him, I'll send you those cores and you can attach them to him. He'll become so corrupt a core transfer should be possible!"

Marty nodded and took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves. "Right…"

The ceiling opened up above them and Wheatley came into view. This was it, no going back now…


	17. Bombs for Throwing at You

"Well well well," Wheatley sneered down at Marty. The receptacle had disappeared and now the teenager was alone with the AI. "Looks like the little boy is all alone."

Marty growled and shifted the portal gun in his hands. He just wished that they would stop shaking.

"Right, according to a bunch of warnings I'm getting right now," Wheatley said. "This whole place is gonna blow up in about six minutes, so I'll actually have to kill you,"

Marty backed up a little bit. "You're a moron," he murmured.

"No, I'm not," Wheatley said flatly. "But anyway, I found some old tapes of that lady killing _her_ and I won't make the same mistakes! The four-part plan is this: One, no portal surfaces," - looking behind him, Marty could see a large pipe full of conversion gel - "Two, start the neurotoxin immediately. Three, bomb-proof shields for me, which leads directly to number four, bombs! For throwing at you!"

Marty went pale as he ran towards the Conversion Gel pipe. "Shit!"

"Yep, just keep on running," Wheatley said. "That way, you'll inhale neurotoxin faster and you'll die quicker!" The AI swung his chassis around and fired a bomb directly at the teenager - just as Marty ducked beneath the Conversion Gel pipe. The white gel splashed everywhere, and Wheatley swore.

Marty cheered quietly and shot a portal onto the floor in front of him. He put another on a panel behind Wheatley. The AI swung round. "Oh, well done! You've just fallen into my brilliant trap!" More bombs were thrown at Marty. The teenager stepped back and the bombs fell into the portal.

They hit Wheatley's chassis and exploded. Sparks showered from the AI and he went limp. "Well done!" GLaDOS's voice came on over the loudspeaker. "I'm delivering the first core up near the catwalk!"

…..

Doc had never seen such a complex setup in his life. Buttons, lights, dials and wires were everywhere. He looked around for anything that he could possibly use to bring down Wheatley.

A keyboard was fixed into the desk and a monitor was placed on the wall above it. The words "Enter Password" flashed on the screen, along with eight dashes. Doc walked forwards and typed in some letters.

A buzzer sounded, indicating that he'd got the password wrong. He tried again with another combination. That one failed too. He tried multiple times, each one ending in a failure. He stopped and thought to himself. Instead of meaninglessly typing in letters, he should try a word.

"PASSWORD"

 _Buzz_

"BLIZZARD"

 _Buzz_

"AARDVARK"

 _Buzz_

Alright, that one was a bit dumb. He tried again.

"SCIENCES"

 _Buzz_

"APERTURE"

 _Ding!_

The screen flashed green and up came a very complex menu system. Doc chuckled a little. That password wasn't particularly secure, was it? He heard the sound of multiple explosions go off over his head and prayed that Marty was doing okay.

….

The teenager gripped the core firmly in his hands. This one had a yellow optic and was babbling incessantly about space. It frantically shifted around in its casing, looking this way and that, as Marty jumped down from the catwalk.

A pipe fell down and burst, spraying blue Repulsion Gel all over the floor. Marty jumped on the gel and stuck the core firmly into the receptacle on the side of Wheatley's chassis.

" _Warning. Core corruption at fifty percent. Vent system compromised. Neurotoxin offline. Reactor explosion in four minutes."_

The AI groaned as he came to. "Urgh… what happened… what happened?! What is that?! What have you put onto me?!"

"A little present," Marty smirked as he ran across the chamber, gripping the portal gun tightly in his hands. He could hear the AI turn the chassis around and he looked around to face him.

Wheatley growled. "Now the bloody bombs are stuck!" He shouted, raising the shields so that they were above him. "I'm gonna get you for that!"

Marty quickly shot a portal underneath the AI and another one in front of him, just as the bombs were thrown at him. They fell through the portals and hit the underside of Wheatley's chassis.

More sparks covered the AI's body and he went limp again. "Great work!" GLaDOS called. "Here comes another core!"

A second core was brought over from the same place as the first and Marty got back onto the catwalk, jumping onto the Repulsion Gel and grabbing it. This one had a green optic with a little black dash on it. "Well, hello there." Its voice practically dripped confidence. "What's a young lad like you doing fighting a guy like that?"

Marty sighed. "I don't have a choice. If I don't fight him, we'll all die,"

"Damn. This situation looks pretty ugly," the core murmured. Marty jumped on the gel again and stuck the core into another receptacle.

" _Warning. Core corruption at seventy-five percent. Reactor explosion timer destroyed. Reactor explosion uncertainty emergency preemption protocol initiated. This facility will self-destruct in two minutes."_

Wheatley twitched and came to life again. "Urgh! I told you, you little brat, not to plug these cores onto me! But did you listen?! NO!"

Marty ran as bombs began to fall behind him. One particular explosion knocked him off his feet and the gun went sliding out of his grip. As he ran to get it, a bomb exploded just two feet in front of him. He collapsed backwards.

Wheatley laughed. "I guess now that you're going to die, I can tell you the truth!"

"What truth?!" Marty shouted as he kept dodging and weaving around.

"You two weren't the first! There were others!" Wheatley shouted, a laugh escaping him. "Five others! They all died, just like you're going to!"

Marty suddenly felt very sick, despite the fact that his stomach had been empty for days. Wheatley had ended up killing others?! It wasn't just them?! Maybe this core had planned for this to happen right from the start. Had he really been planning to betray them, make them test and then kill them?!

"The first, well, her legs snapped clean in two!" Wheatley laughed. "She bled to death! The second fell into one of those stagnant pools and couldn't swim!" This core was _enjoying_ telling Marty about what had happened to the others. "Number three? Turrets! The fourth one jumped on a Faith Plate and hit a panel too hard and the fifth, well, let's just say, the fifth lost the gun and starved to death in a chamber!"

Marty wanted to vomit. He wanted to curl into a ball and hide. He wanted to get an axe and smash that stupid stupid core to pieces! He made it to the gun and shot a portal onto a panel behind the AI. Just as Wheatley fired again, the teen placed a portal in front of him. The bombs fell through and exploded on the chassis. Wheatley went limp again.

"Nice!" GLaDOS called. "Here's the third core! This one should do it!"

The claw holding the core was hanging high above the teenager's head. Marty walked over, trying to find a way to get hold of it. He looked at the countdown clock: thirty seconds left. He gulped.

Something broke above his head. That something was a pipe containing Propulsion Gel. A stripe of it was splattered onto the floor and Marty quickly placed two portals. Running as fast as he could on the gel, he was sent flying upwards. He grabbed the core and landed, immediately running towards the AI.

…..

Doc could hear the warnings going off above him. He could feel the building shaking. "Come on Marty," He murmured, still trying to disable the AI from the inside. "You can do it, kid,"

So far, he had brought down a lot of the AI's firewall defence system, meaning that the corrupted cores would have a stronger effect on the AI. He was typing furiously, trying to disable as much as he could.

Doc found a folder full of emergency protocols. Using the computer mouse, he dragged it around and deleted the folder and all its contents. He just hoped that that would be enough to bring Wheatley down.

….

Marty jumped up on the gel and slammed the core firmly into the receptacle. He landed rather roughly, falling to one side. He got up, rubbing his ankle with one hand and holding the gun in the other.

" _Warning. Core corruption at one hundred percent."_

"NO!" Wheatley groaned loudly as he moved again.

A section of the floor opened up, revealing GLaDOS sat in a receptacle. Looking around now, Marty noticed that behind the panels, the fire was raging. Pieces of the ceiling fell down and the whole building was shaking violently.

" _Manual core replacement required."_

"Oh-oh!" Wheatley chuckled harshly. "So that's your little game, is it?"

Marty had stopped to catch his breath. "Yeah. Face the facts, moron, you've lost!"

Wheatley growled and shifted his chassis irritably. "Not yet, I haven't," He muttered.

" _Substitute core, are you ready to start the procedure?"_

"Yes!" GLaDOS shouted. "Come on already!"

" _Corrupted core, are you ready to start the procedure?"_

"What do you think?!" Wheatley snapped irritably.

" _Interpreting vague answer as yes,"_

"NO! No no! You didn't pick up on my sarcasm!" Wheatley stuttered. The tone of his voice indicated that he was beginning to panic.

" _Stalemate detected,"_

Marty gulped. He was getting a serious case of deja-vu. This was exactly how the other core transfer had gone, and he remembered all too well what had happened then.

…..

"Come on!" Doc yelled furiously at the computer screen. He'd taken down most of the chassis' processor, meaning that by now, Wheatley's thoughts should be jumbled and incoherent.

Numbers flashed in front of his eyes and he quickly tried to override them. This technology far surpassed what he was used to, but he gave it his best shot.

He heard the announcement above him, indicating that a core transfer was happening. He cheered. Marty had done it!

…

" _Stalemate Resolution Associate,"_ the announcer said. " _Please press the Stalemate Resolution Button."_

Some panels opened up in the wall, revealing a button blocked off by a metal fence. Squinting, Marty noticed that there were several large bombs placed around the button, which were quickly hidden by panels. He growled to himself. _That son of a bitch!_

Flames burst out from the room, blocking Marty from going anywhere near it. " _Fire detected in the Stalemate Resolution Annex. Extinguishing."_

Some sprinklers turned on from the ceiling and water fell on the whole chamber. To his horror, Marty noticed that the Conversion, Repulsion and Propulsion gels were being washed away.

"Oh," Wheatley said flatly. "They just wash away, do they? That would have been good to know earlier on!"

Marty shot a portal on the ceiling above the button and ran towards the centre of the chamber. "Go press the button!" GLaDOS yelled.

"No!" Wheatley snapped. "Do not do it! I forbid you to press it!"

The only patch of Conversion Gel that still remained was beneath Wheatley, where the chassis had stopped the water washing it away. Marty shot a portal onto that and took a deep breath. He'd seen the bombs. He knew what Wheatley was planning to do. He had no choice but to just jump through.

"Sorry, Doc," He murmured as he jumped. His hand was an inch from the button when -

 _ **BOOOM!**_


	18. You Saved Science

Doc heard the explosion above him, along with Wheatley's shout of "PART FIVE! BOOBY-TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!"

The whole room shook, causing plaster to fall down from the ceiling, showering the man. He had so little time left. As he typed in more numbers, a small hatch on the desk opened up, revealing a large, red button. The words "Manual Central Core Override" were printed just above the button. Without a second thought, the scientist slammed his hand down on it.

Upstairs, Wheatley was laughing. As soon as the button was pressed, a strong wave of electricity overrode his circuits and he went limp. The receptacle containing GLaDOS was pulled into the floor and the core transfer was initiated.

Doc breathed a sigh of relief and left the room, heading for the small breaker room. The door slid open and he got in. The sounds of whirring and clunking could be heard above him and from what he could see, most of the facility had gone limp. When the lights came back on, the platform he was standing on rose upwards and he was greeted with the sight of GLaDOS back in her own core.

He couldn't help but give a small cheer at that. "Yes! We did it, Marty! We can finally get out of here!"

Doc waited eagerly for the teenager to respond, but after a few moments, there was still silence. His grin faded into a frown. "Marty?"

Taking time to look around, Doc saw all the rubble lining the chamber, particularly the far side. Huge, broken panels laid on the floor and a few small fires were still going. Soot and ash covered the walls and floor, indicating that there had been an explosion there. Pieces of rubble and metal laid on the floor and a discarded and broken portal gun sat in the corner, its owner nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" Doc looked at the AI. "Where is Marty?"

GLaDOS manoeuvred some small claws to get rid of the larger pieces of rubble. She didn't say anything, only making Doc worry more.

"Where is he?!" The scientist demanded again.

GLaDOS emitted a small robotic sigh and moved away the largest broken panel. Lying beneath it was a small figure, his brown hair charred and his clothes burned. He was lying face-down, gasped and ran over to him. "Marty!"

The teenager didn't answer. His eyes were closed. Doc knelt beside him and moved away the rest of the rubble, pulling the teenager out and laying him on his back. A nasty cut was present on the side of his head, the blood dampening his hair. The right side of his face was covered in ashes. His right wrist looked painfully broken and his clothes were shredded and spotted with dark blood. Doc put two fingers on the boy's neck, searching for a pulse. He was relieved to find that Marty's heart was still beating. His breathing was faint and shallow.

"That moron set up bombs," GLaDOS said quietly. "Around the Stalemate Button. He didn't have a choice,"

"Help him," Doc said, his voice firm. "You have to try and help him."

"I'm afraid that the medical supplies I have here are very basic,"

"I don't care," Doc snapped. "Anything is better than leaving him here to die."

GLaDOS let out a small sigh. A panel on the wall opened up and rotated until it was horizontal. "Lay him on here, I'll see what I can do,"

Doc carefully took Marty in his arms and stood up, laying the teenager down gently on the panel. As soon as he did so, the panel retreated behind the wall and Marty disappeared from view. Doc then sat himself down on the floor, a vacant look on his face.

GLaDOS swung round to face several monitors and from where Doc was, he could see what looked like an operating theatre. Marty was slowly brought in and the AI set to work on trying to help him. Doc looked around the chamber again and his eyes came to rest on the portal gun. One of the bars on the front had snapped off and it sparked a little bit every now and then. It was burned and dented, the white frame blackened by ash.

The scientist's gaze came to rest on a small, spherical object in the corner of the room next to him. With a jolt, he realised it was Wheatley. "What's he doing here?!"

"I thought that you and Martin would want a word with him," GLaDOS said, not taking her optic off the monitors. "I've disabled his vocal processor so at least he won't be babbling incoherent nonsense."

Doc fixed the sphere with a hard glare. "I hope you're happy." He spat. "You've tried to kill us on numerous occasions when all we did was try to help you escape."

The core didn't respond. He just sat there, his optic a mere pinprick and trembling. His handles shook, but not once did he look away from the scientist.

"You're a traitor, a liar and a complete and utter hopeless excuse for a robot." Doc rolled his eyes and looked away, turning his attention to the bullet wound on his leg. It was starting to itch rather uncomfortably, which he figured was a good thing. It meant it was healing. Marty seemed to have done a good job of wrapping it up - the bandages were fairly neat and they weren't loose.

Doc frowned a little. He hoped Marty would be alright. He'd heard the explosion from the Manual Override Chamber, the tremors had shaken the whole room but he didn't know exactly what had happened until he'd actually reached the Central AI Chamber.

After what seemed like an eternity but was more likely only an hour, GLaDOS swung her chassis back around and a panel in the wall opened up. A horizontal panel was brought through and laying upon it was Marty. Bandages were wrapped around his head and his right wrist. A thin blanket had been laid over him and he was still asleep.

Doc got up and quietly went over to him. He laid a hand on the teen's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "How bad is it?"

"Well, the right side of his body must have been closer to the explosion as most of the injuries have occurred on that side. He had some small second-degree burns on the right side of his abdomen. His right wrist is broken and he has a concussion. I managed to fix the burns he acquired on his hands and shins earlier as well and they have been properly cleaned and wrapped." GLaDOS explained. She swung over to that side of the room, looking over Doc's shoulder at the unconscious boy.

"How long do you think it will take for him to wake up?"

"I'm not sure," GLaDOS let out a small sigh. "It could be a few minutes, it could be days."

Doc nodded a little bit and squeezed Marty's shoulder again gently. "I'm not sure how we're going to hide this from his parents."

"Well seeing that his injuries should heal relatively quickly because he's young, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Now," GLaDOS turned a little to observe the scientist. "Why don't we see what we can do to fix your car?"

Doc looked at her. "How do you propose we get it down here? It certainly will not fit in the elevator."

"There are some larger panels on the surface which I can use to bring the car down here," GLaDOS explained. She turned away for a moment and began moving her core slightly, controlling something on the surface. After a minute, a few panels slid open and the DeLorean was brought down.

The car was a little rusted and still damp - it must have been raining at some point. Leaves fell from the top of the car and onto the floor. Other than that, it was exactly how the pair had left it almost a week ago. The keys and the large bottle of water Doc always kept around in case of emergencies were still inside. Taking the bottle out, Doc unscrewed the cap and took a drink. Only when he swallowed the water did he realise how thirsty he was. He was tempted to drink the lot but decided to put the cap back on and save some for when Marty woke up.

"What's wrong with it?" GLaDOS asked, using a metal claw to pull the gullwing doors open.

Doc sat inside and gestured to the flux capacitor. "This is malfunctioning. We were struck by lightning and this thing sent us here. The lightning shorted out both the flux capacitor and the time circuits."

GLaDOS brought over some tools and carefully set about removing the components. "I'll see what I can do. For the meantime, try and get some rest. You look exhausted."

Doc sat down against the wall and nodded. He yawned a little bit. He couldn't remember exactly how long it had been since they slept, but it had been at least more than 24 hours. Closing his eyes, it didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

GLaDOS in the meantime worked on the DeLorean's components. Some of the small wires in the flux capacitor had been completely shorted out, so she replaced them. It took about half an hour, but eventually it was finished and she replaced it back inside the car. She then moved on to the time circuits, which were also fried. She replaced some of the most minor components in that and fixed the wires, before putting the device back inside the car.

Turning around, she noticed that Doc was completely knocked out on the floor. He had slumped down against the wall. She sighed a little and shook her core, before redirecting her attention to Wheatley.

The small sphere immediately began to panic when he noticed that the AI was looking down onto him. He wriggled around in his casing, his optic's aperture contracted to a small spot. He shook and flailed his handles and tried desperately to get away. GLaDOS chuckled a little bit at seeing this. "You no right to be afraid," She said. "You caused those two great harm - both mental and physical - and here you are, wriggling around like a fish caught on a line."

Wheatley froze but didn't dare take his gaze off the AI in front of him. If he had a heart, it would be pounding heavily right now. GLaDOS went on. "I hope you realise just what you've done to them. They tried to help you and all you did was stab them in the back." Wheatley shook himself sideways in his casing, imitating someone shaking their head. "Oh?" GLaDOS shifted ever so slightly, her optic narrowing dangerously. "You believe that you didn't betray them?"

Wheatley froze again, startled by the tone in the robot's voice. He looked down at the floor, his aperture relaxing and nodded three times. He closed his optic shields completely and turned away shamefacedly. "Maybe you're not as much of a moron as I first thought," GLaDOS said, causing Wheatley to look up at her.

"You're much worse than that."

Suddenly, a claw descended from the ceiling and hoisted the small sphere into the air. He immediately began to panic again, flailing his handles in a desperate attempt to get away. All that happened was that GLaDOS tightened her grip on him and part of his already broken casing snapped. A few sparks fell to the floor and he stopped moving. The claw brought him over to where Marty lay on the panel.

"See that?" GLaDOS asked, a hint of severity in her voice. "That is the boy who tried to help you escape. He and his friend over there are the reason you ever made it into my chassis in the first place."

Wheatley trembled a little bit, his gaze fixed on Marty in a horrified stare. His handles shook ever so slightly. "You had better pray that he wakes up," GLaDOS said firmly. "Because if he doesn't, you can be the one to explain to his family why he's not coming home."

Wheatley shut his optic and looked away, shuddering. He couldn't believe what he'd done. That kid had helped him get away from GLaDOS. He'd helped him get through those rooms. He'd carried him around when he'd detached himself from the rail. He remembered the shocked, angry, hurt look on the teenager's face when he'd put GLaDOS into that potato. The reality of what he'd done was crashing down on him like a ton of bricks.

GLaDOS scoffed and threw the core through a gap in the panels, not even flinching as he smashed into the wall. "You can sit there and think about what you've done. At least until these two leave. After that, well," she chuckled. "I'll see just how much your little body can withstand."

Wheatley was trembling again, his optic shut firmly. He was helpless - there was no way he could move on his own, so there was no getting out of this situation. He had to just sit there in the darkness and wait for GLaDOS to turn on him. After all, he deserved it.

…..

Several hours later, Doc was fully awake again and pacing, his hands behind his back. Marty had yet to wake up and he waited anxiously. Every so often, he would stop pacing and look over to the teenager, occasionally walking over and shaking Marty's shoulder gently. Each attempt yielded no positive results, and he would go back to pacing again.

On his fifteenth attempt to rouse Marty from his sleep, something had changed. Marty coughed a little bit and Doc saw his eyelids twitch. His hopes immediately soared. "Marty?"

Marty coughed a bit and opened his eyes, trying to sit up. "Doc…?" He groaned, lying back and putting his left hand to his forehead. "Oh man… how long was I out?"

"Eight hours, forty-seven minutes and thirty-one seconds," GLaDOS said. "Not long at all, considering how close you were to the explosion."

"Explosion?" Marty tried again to sit up and Doc helped him. With their combined efforts and some wincing on Marty's part, the teenager was soon sat upright on the panel and leaning against the wall, his legs tucked up against him. He rubbed the back of his head. "Oh yeah… that 'part five' thing Wheatley mentioned. I must have blacked out after that."

Doc took a seat on the panel next to him. "How do you feel?"

"With my hands, like everyone else," Marty replied with a smirk.

Doc chuckled and gave him a light shove. "You know what I mean,"

Marty laughed and rolled his eyes. "I feel fine. A little sore and my arm aches, but I'm fine,"

"I have repaired the broken components to the time machine," GLaDOS stated. "I've looked it over. It seems quite fascinating from what I can tell."

"Well, believe me, it works," Marty chuckled. "Let's just hope it'll work again so we can get home. I'm still starving,"

Doc reached down and passed him the bottle of water. "Here. It's not enough, I know, but it will have to suffice until we get back."

Marty took the water and unscrewed the cap, taking a long drink. He drained half the bottle and passed it back to Doc, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Thanks,"

Doc nodded and hopped down from the panel. "Let's get going," he said, giving Marty a hand to get down. "I hope Clara and the boys are alright."

"They're fine, Doc," Marty reassured. "It'll be like we never left. Well, for them anyway. Hey, could I spend the night at your place? If I turn up at home looking like this my parents will kill me,"

Doc chuckled, looking the teen over. Sure enough, his hair was like a bird's nest, his clothes were filthy and he was covered in a mixture of the gels and grime. "Sure, you know you can spend the night at my place whenever it suits you."

Marty grinned. "Thanks." He turned to the AI. "Hey, GLaDOS? We left all our stuff in the Relaxation Centre when we first got here, would you mind getting it for us?"

"Not at all," GLaDOS swung around for a moment and started working on something. A minute later, a panel in the wall opened up and their things were brought through. "There, although I must say, I can't imagine why anyone would want to wear a bright red life preserver like that all the time."

Marty rolled his eyes. "I've heard that all before," He commented, putting the items of clothing and his wallet inside the DeLorean before getting in. Doc joined him and pulled the door shut. "Hey, could we keep that gun as a souvenir?"

GLaDOS looked over to where the broken portal gun still sat in the corner. She hummed in thought for a moment. "I don't see why not. It's useless now; that explosion has completely broken it."

Marty jumped out and grabbed the gun, before returning to the DeLorean where Doc was waiting. "Awesome, thanks,"

GLaDOS shrugged. "It's not like you'd be able to use it outside of here, anyway,"

Marty grinned and pulled the door shut, clipping the seatbelt on. He looked at Doc. "Ready?"

"Ready," Doc nodded. GLaDOS moved some panels to create a flat surface roughly the length of a football pitch.

"Well, that should be enough space. Have a safe trip."

Doc nodded and turned the engine on. He turned on the time circuits and pressed his foot on the accelerator. The car shot forwards, gaining momentum and speeding up. As it hit eighty-eight, it disappeared in a flash of blue sparks.


	19. OMG, what has he done?

Three sonic booms rang out and the car appeared on the road again. Somehow, they'd managed to end up not miles underground. Doc told Marty that was probably because the car registered that they would appear in a solid lump of earth, so it recalibrated their arrival to the surface.

Doc turned the car around and began driving back towards his house. They pulled into the driveway and parked the DeLorean in the lab again. Marty got out and breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thank God that's over,"

Doc nodded in agreement. "Hopefully, that will be the last of it. Let's go inside and get cleaned up,"

Marty nodded and picked up his clothes, wallet and the portal gun from the car. He followed Doc up to the house. Inside, Clara was preparing lunch. She looked over as they entered. "Oh, my word! What on Earth happened to you?!"

"Aperture Science, that's what," Marty sighed, setting his clothes down on the ground. He held up the portal gun. "Got a pretty neat souvenir, though,"

Clara looked at all the bandages covering Marty's body. "Oh, my… are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Marty shrugged.

Doc looked over at him. "You might want to go and take a shower, though, you're filthy."

"So are you," Marty retorted with a smirk, picking his clothes up and going down the hall towards the bathroom. He returned fifteen minutes later, back in his jeans and a t-shirt, drying his hair with a towel. He looked much better now that he'd cleaned himself up. His hair was back to its regular brown, rather than the dirt-filled mouse colour, and his face was free from the grime and soot. However, now that he was cleaned up, Clara could tell just how hungry he was.

"When was the last time you ate?!"

Marty rubbed the back of his neck as Doc went off to shower. "Uhh... I can't remember. We were gone a week, I think…"

"A week?!" Clara gasped. "Well, no wonder you look so thin! It's a good thing that dinner's almost ready."

At the mention of food, Marty's stomach growled loudly and he went red. "Heh… great,"

Marty took a seat on the couch and laid back. He was borderline falling asleep when Doc came back and sat next to him. He sat up, blinking the drowsiness from his eyes. He stretched his arms out behind his head. "Man, I need some sleep."

Doc chuckled. "We both do. After we've had dinner, you can spend the night in the guest room."

"Thanks," Marty yawned a little bit. He ran a hand through his hair and yawned again. "If I turned up back home looking like this my parents would flip out,"

"Dinner!" Clara called from the kitchen.

Marty got up from the sofa so fast one would think he'd been struck by lightning. Doc was right behind him. The pair rushed into the kitchen, just as Clara set down the plates of lasagne. They immediately grabbed a fork each and started wolfing the food down.

Clara, Jules, and Verne looked at them in astonishment. "What on Earth happened to you?!" Jules asked incredulously.

"Long story," Marty mumbled through a mouthful of food. He swallowed and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "We were stuck in some underground research facility for ages,"

"By the looks of things, you were gone more than just a week!" Clara said.

Doc looked at his watch, swallowing a mouthful of pasta. "We were gone six days, three hours and fifty-six minutes to be precise, during which time we had nothing to eat. It feels a lot longer than that,"

Marty had finished his plateful of food in five minutes flat. He wiped his mouth and sat back in the chair. "That was really good… thanks,"

Clara smirked a bit as Doc too finished eating. "The pair of you are like starved hounds." Doc and Marty exchanged a glance and burst out laughing. Clara just gave them a purely confused look. "I won't even ask."

"It would take ages to explain," Doc said, chuckling a little bit. "I'll tell you later,"

Verne pointed at the gun lying on the table. "Does it have anything to do with that?"

"Believe me, that thing makes up about sixty percent of it," Marty replied. "It was the only reason we managed to get home safely, otherwise, we would have been stuck there for goodness knows how long."

"What does it do?" Jules asked as he finished eating.

"It's sorta hard to explain," Marty rubbed the back of his neck.

"It uses special portal-conducting surfaces made only from lunar ingredients to create passageways through which objects can travel," Doc explained. "Well, from what I can infer, anyway,"

Marty looked purely perplexed at that explanation, but it seemed to satisfy Jules' question as he asked no more. The teenager picked the gun up and looked it over in his hands. It was charred and part of the metal had broken. The glass interior had chipped a little and it didn't seem functional. He shrugged and put it on the ground.

"Well," Doc stood up from the table. "If you'll excuse us, Marty and I need to go and dismantle that ridiculous component from the DeLorean,"

Clara nodded and began clearing the dishes away while Jules and Verne returned to the game they had been playing. Marty followed Doc back out to the lab where the DeLorean was parked.

Doc tossed Marty a wrench as he grabbed a screwdriver. "Let's get rid of this thing before any more trouble gets caused. Would you mind getting the spare tools from the trunk?"

Marty nodded and pulled the hood open and took the tools out, passing them to Doc. He returned to the side of the DeLorean and began helping the scientist take the component off the dashboard. Once it was done, Doc handed the teenager a hammer.

"Destroy it."

Marty grinned a little. "I've always wanted to do this to something you've built," he replied as he smashed the hammer down onto the device. Immediately, the front panel of the device flew off and went skidding across the floor, soon being followed by bolts, screws, wires and other pieces of the machine.

Doc looked somewhat displeased by Marty's statement. "Oh really?"

"Yep, you know that only about a third of what you've built actually works, plus I just like smashing stuff," Marty replied as he continued breaking apart the device.

The scientist crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow as the teenager finished smashing the device to pieces. "Well, I'm glad to know you enjoy destroying inventions that I put time, effort and money into."

"Geez Doc," Marty put the hammer down. "Don't need to bite my head off about it, I didn't mean it seriously."

"You didn't, did you?" Something about Doc's tone told Marty that he was being sarcastic. "So when you blew up the amplifier, crashed the DeLorean and repetitively got at least one of us stuck in some ridiculous situation, you didn't mean it?"

"No! Of course, I didn't!" Marty snapped irritably.

"Oh, sure!" Doc snapped back. "You know if you had even half the amount of brain power as a normal person maybe none of that would have happened. If you had a normal IQ then you would have known not to take that almanac!"

Marty's mouth fell open in shock. "W-what…?"

Doc opened his mouth to speak but he realised just what he'd said. "Oh shit… Marty wait-"

"No," Marty growled. "I understand just fine. You just see me as an idiot, don't you? You don't think that I actually understand anything about how this stuff works, so you have to dumb it down for me. Well, you know what?" His eyes were brimming with tears. "Maybe I am an idiot. I'm the idiot who only just now realised what an ASSHOLE YOU ARE!"

The teenager grabbed his stuff, turned on his heel and stormed out of the garage, heading towards his truck. Doc ran out after him. "Marty! Wait!"

"Why should I?!" Marty bellowed over his shoulder. "I guess if I was smart I would, but clearly I'm not!"

Doc ran up to the teenager just as he reached his truck. He grabbed Marty's arm. "Kid, please!"

Marty's rage completely boiled over. Curling his right hand into a fist, he swung a solid, hard punch at Doc's face. The blow landed squarely across his jaw and the scientist let go of his arm, stumbling backwards. "You know, you may have a high IQ but you really lack common sense!"

With that, Marty dumped his stuff in the truck, got in and drove off, leaving a startled and somewhat guilty Doc on the sidewalk behind him. He put his foot harder on the accelerator and sped up, his black Toyota 4x4 disappearing around the corner.

Doc sighed and got to his feet, rubbing his jaw with one hand. Marty had hit him hard, probably resulting in a bruise later on. He headed back to the house, frowning. He'd let slip an insult he hadn't really meant and he knew he deserved that punch, but it still make him angry. He pushed the door open and headed into the kitchen, intending on getting a glass of water.

As he sipped the drink, Clara walked into the kitchen and noticed the bruise forming on the side of Doc's face. "What happened?"

"Marty's temper," Doc sighed in response. "We were having an argument. I asked him to destroy that device I implanted into the DeLorean with a hammer and he claimed that he'd always wanted to destroy something I'd built. I pointed out that I quite often spent a great deal of time, money and effort on those projects, to which he claimed that what he'd said was a joke. I…" He paused, sighing. "I retorted by saying that if he had a higher IQ, he never would have stolen the almanac from 2015."

Clara gasped a little bit. "Emmett!"

Doc put the glass down and rubbed his elbow awkwardly. "I don't know what I was thinking. I regretted it as soon as the words left my mouth. He stormed out and as I tried to catch up with him, I grabbed his arm and he punched me,"

Clara crossed her arms disapprovingly. "Well, I hope you've learned from this. I think you seriously underestimate that boy at times. He may not have a scientific degree like you, but he isn't an idiot,"

"I know," Doc sighed, running a hand through his hair. "But what's done is done. I shan't call him until tomorrow, it will only aggravate the situation."

Clara sighed. "You had better apologise soon,"

Doc frowned and averted his gaze to the floor as his wife left the room. He took a seat at the kitchen table and picked at the fraying sleeve of his lab coat. Guilt was slowly pushing down on his shoulders and settling in his stomach, making him feel sick. He released a frustrated sigh and got up, walking around the table and heading for the front door.

He walked outside and back into the lab, where the destroyed pieces of the device were still strewn across the floor. Doc knelt down and began to pick them up, disposing of them in the trash can nearby. The argument he'd had with Marty played over and over again in his head and didn't seem to go away, no matter how hard he tried to think of something else.

This whole thing had been his fault in the first place.


	20. Want You Gone

**A/N - I know, I know, there's no excuse for this chapter to have taken 19 months. I've had approximately half of it finished for ages now, but I kept going back, deleting and re-writing it over and over again and then I just did nothing with it for about a year. There's no excuse for it and I'm sorry. I'm way more active over on Tumblr and AO3 now, (radioactivedelorean on both sites) so chances are I won't be active around here much longer.**

Marty sat on his bed and tossed a ball against his bedroom wall absentmindedly, catching it every time it bounced back to him. The argument with Doc echoed in his head over and over again.

" _If you had even half the amount of brain power as a normal person maybe none of that would have happened!"_

Marty growled and threw the ball at the wall again, knocking down a photo. He got up to pick the photo up and cringed when he saw it was of him and Doc, standing next to the clock back in 1885. The glass frame was cracked, but luckily the photo inside was intact.

The teenager groaned and flopped back onto his bed, the photo in one hand. He stared up at the ceiling and sighed. He felt awful for that argument, now. Sure, Doc had stepped over the line with what he'd said, but that didn't make Marty feel any less guilty for punching him. He didn't blame Doc for what he said - it was true. He really was an idiot.

Marty's eyes drifted over to his phone. _Should I call Doc and apologise? Would he even want to speak to me after what he said?_

Shaking his head, he stared back up at the ceiling.

00000

Doc was sitting at his desk, rolling a pencil between his fingers. He couldn't find the motivation to do anything, not after his fight with Marty. The semi-demolished time circuits sat in the corner of the lab.

A small crackle of static emitted from the trunk of the DeLorean, before a meek British voice called out. "Uh, I don't wanna cause any problems but… where am I?"

Doc practically leapt out of his skin. The desk chair fell backwards and clattered on the floor. Doc paid it no mind as he rushed over to the DeLorean and threw the trunk open. Sitting there, in the deepest part of the storage compartment, was a small, slightly dented blue-eyed core.

Wheatley immediately shrunk back in terror as he recognised who it was who had opened the trunk. "Oh god oh god! N-no mate, it's alright! Just leave me here, it's fine! It's actually comfy! No need to get me out, oh no! You don't need to pick me up or anything, or y'know, hurt me!"

Doc clenched his jaw, picking up the nearby hammer and holding it threateningly above the robot. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't smash you right now."

Wheatley's optic shrunk back and he shifted in such a way that looked like he was trying to dissolve into the trunk of the DeLorean. "I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking! I never meant for you or Marty to get hurt!"

"That's bullshit and you know it," Doc raised the hammer higher.

"NO! Okay, I _was_ trying to kill you and I'm sorry! All you did was help me and I repaid you by stabbing you in the back!" Wheatley blurted out. "I was a moron! I am a moron! All I do is hurt people!"

The small core was emitting sounds that were similar to sobs, and Doc couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy towards him. He was programmed to literally be a moron, it was only natural he'd be overwhelmed by his newfound power and go crazy.

Letting out a long sigh, Doc lowered the hammer and placed it back on the table. He gently grabbed the core (Wheatley flinched a bit at first, thinking he was going to hurt him) and lifted him out of the trunk before placing him on the desk. He picked his chair up and sat back at the desk.

"So, uh… where's Marty?" Wheatley asked after a moment. His optic widened in sudden horror. "Oh God, he's not dead is he?! Did I kill him?!"

"Relax," Doc put a hand on the core's upper handle. "He's fine. We had a bit of a fight and he ran off home, but he's fine,"

"Is that how you got that?" Wheatley gestured with his handle to Doc's black eye.

"Yeah, the kid's stronger than he looks," Doc sighed. "It was my own fault. I told him he was an idiot for getting us stuck in a dystopian version of our own universe,"

"What happened? How's that happen?" The core asked.

Doc took a deep breath, explaining the whole event to him, from arriving in 2015 to Marty using the train to get back to 1985. He left out a few details (Wheatley didn't need to know about his life with Clara during the 1880s). It took almost a half-hour to recall everything that had happened. When he'd finished, he sat back in the chair and let Wheatley process everything.

Eventually, the core seemed to frown, and looked up at Doc. "Well, from what you've told me, it doesn't seem like Marty's an idiot at all."

"I know," Doc ran a hand over his face. "I should never have said that."

"Well, you seemed sorta stressed. If I'd been in your position, I'd have flipped out too."

"That doesn't really help," Doc sighed, running a hand through his hair. "There's only one thing left for me to do."

"What's that?" Wheatley asked.

"I need to phone Marty and apologise right away." With that, Doc rose from the chair and moved to leave the lab.

"Hey! You're not just gonna leave me sat here, are you? I don't see any management rails,"

"I won't be long," Doc called over his shoulder. He pulled open the lab doors and strode out across the grass towards the house. He figured she shouldn't really leave Wheatley where he could be easily seen, but he wasn't prepared to drag him across the lawn into the house. He pushed the front door open and headed towards the phone in the hallway. With Marty's number memorised, he dialled the teenager and waited for a response.

Marty groaned and rolled over on the bed, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He looked at the phone. No doubt that was Doc calling him. He reached over and put the receiver to his ear. "Hello?"

" _Marty? It's me."_ Doc's voice responded.

Marty couldn't stifle the groan that escaped him. "What do you want?"

Doc frowned. "Marty, listen. I'm sorry for what I said. Honestly, I am. I never meant to say those things."

Marty flopped onto his back and scoffed. "Thing is, Doc, if you really didn't think I was an idiot, then you wouldn't have said that, regardless if whether you were angry or not."

Doc ran a hand through his hair and leant against the wall. "Marty _please._ Honestly, I swear I didn't mean it. Would you please come over here so we can discuss this in person?"

Marty sighed. "Fine, give me fifteen minutes."

"Thank you," Doc replied. "See you soon."

"Yeah, see ya," Marty put the phone down. He pushed himself off the bed and got up, grabbing his backpack. He pulled his shoes onto his feet and took his skateboard, heading for the front door. Setting his board down on the road once he was outside, he pushed off with one foot and headed towards Doc's place.

True to his word, Marty arrived fifteen minutes later. He jumped off his skateboard and kicked the board up into his hands before walking up the pathway to the front door of Doc's house. Before he got to the door, the scientist flung the door open and strode across the grass towards him. "Marty!"

Marty raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, hello to you too, Doc,"

Doc frowned as he stopped in front of his friend. He scratched the back of his head agitatedly. He took a deep breath. "I never meant to say any of those things. You are by no means an idiot. I let my temper get the better of me and you ended up paying the price."

Marty let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through his hair, his skateboard dropping to the ground by his side. "It's… it's alright, Doc." His gaze flickered to the ground beneath his feet. "I'm sorry for punching you. I just… I guess I sort of lost it. I mean you're so damn intelligent and good at everything and I'm not. I still don't know why you bother putting up with me."

"Marty," Doc put a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "I don't 'put up' with you. I enjoy your company. You're the only person in this whole damn town who _didn't_ see me as an utter nutcase. Before I met Clara, you were the only person I could talk to without having to worry whether I'd be ostracised or not. I'm sorry I made you feel this way."

Marty shook his head and stood taller, wrapping his arms around Doc's neck. "It's not your fault. It's okay, seriously."

Doc returned the hug, his arms sliding around Marty's back. "I still feel awful about what I said."

"Don't." Marty smiled. "It's okay. I'm not mad, I promise."

"Alright," Doc stepped away from the teenager and grinned. "Now, if you would follow me to the lab, I have something rather important to discuss with you."

Marty raised an eyebrow with an inquisitive smirk. "Oh really? What would that be?"

Doc scratched the back of his neck. "It's difficult to explain. It's best if I show you."

"You're the doc," Marty shrugged, picking up his skateboard. "Lead the way."

Doc led Marty across the grass to his lab. As they approached, Wheatley looked towards the door from his position on the desk. He froze in place, not sure who was approaching. Doc pushed the door open and held it open for Marty. Once Marty spotted what was sitting on the desk - or, more specifically, _who -_ he froze and dropped his skateboard. The board clattered to the floor.

Wheatley's optic shrunk to a pinprick. He simulated a gulp. "Oh, uh, h-hey!"

Marty's shock turned to rage in an instant and he stormed forwards, grabbing the wrench off Doc's workbench and holding it high above the robot. Doc launched himself forward and grabbed Marty's wrist before the teen could swing down with the wrench. Marty glared furiously at the robot. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?!"

Wheatley looked at the desk, his handles retracted close to his body. "Uuh, um s-She put me in the trunk of the car. I d-don't know why. It wasn't my idea, I swear! She m-must have done it while you weren't looking!"

"You mean when I was unconscious?!" Marty snarled. "After you set up those bombs and tried to _kill me?!"_

Wheatley flinched away, his optic shields slamming closed. "I-I'm sorry! I n-never _really_ wanted to kill you!"

"That's bullshit!" Marty tore his arm out of Doc's grasp and moved to swing the wrench again.

"Marty!" Doc grabbed the boy's wrist again and pulled the wrench out of his hand. "Beating him up will not solve this!"

"How do you expect me to just _stand here_ while the guy who nearly killed us just _sits here and grins?!"_ Marty snapped. "He nearly _killed me,_ Doc!"

"Yes, I know," Doc shot Wheatley an accusatory glance, before turning back to look at Marty. "But unfortunately we can't exactly just throw him in the trash. We have to do something."

"Like what?"

Doc ran a hand through his hair. "I suppose we have no choice but to send him back to Aperture."

"You're kidding me?" Marty balked. "You mean we have to go back to that place and dump him there?"

"He'll cause serious time paradoxes if we keep him here any longer," Doc sighed, sitting down on the edge of the workbench. "Aperture Science has already been established by this point in time, but chances are they already have one of ...whatever you are," he gestured vaguely to Wheatley.

"Personality constructs!" Wheatley supplied rather unhelpfully. "Oh there's loads of 'em! There's the Fact Sphere, Adventure Sphere, Space Sphere, there's also the Oracle Sphere and the Management Sphere and the -"

"Alright alright I get the point," Doc waved a hand around, getting Wheatley to shut up. "So there's a lot of different robots, I get it. Which one are you?"

"The er… I _think_ I'm the Intelligence something-or-other sphere?"

"Intelligence sphere?" Marty asked with a raised brow, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. Doc had to bite back a laugh.

"Intelligence Dampening Sphere!" Wheatley proclaimed cheerily. "Just checked the ol' database!"

"That makes more sense," Marty muttered under his breath.

"So what's gonna happen to me?" Wheatley asked, his handles curling around his body a little bit and his optic shrinking a little. "You're not gonna throw me in a trash compactor, are ya?"

"No, it'd ruin the whole machine," Doc shook his head. "We need to get you sent back to where you came from and not a minute sooner. Having two of you around will only cause a serious paradox, and if the two of you were to meet...well …"

"It'd wipe out time both forward and backward," Marty finished off, leaning against the workbench beside Doc.

"So we'd all die?"

"And you know, the universe will collapse in on itself, ending the lives of every living organism in existence and there would be nothing but a black void, so yes, we'd all die," Doc said.

Marty sighed, kicking at the ground with his feet. "So what now? We rebuild that device and then head back to Aperture, dump Wheatley there and come home again?"

"Sounds like the only viable plan to me," Doc nodded. He pushed himself up off the workbench and went to grab the broken device from where it lay on the floor. Marty jumped up and helped to pick up the stray pieces.

Wheatley watched the pair in mild curiosity. "What's that?"

"It's the device that got us landed at Aperture in the first place," Doc replied. "It lets us use that," he pointed to where the DeLorean was parked in the corner of the lab, "to travel far further in time than what the car could originally."

"Oh, right of course," Wheatley nodded his chassis a little bit, but Doc and Marty both knew that he had no idea what Doc was talking about. As they gathered up the pieces of the device, Marty moved Wheatley off the table and they began to reconstruct the device.

After nearly two hours of hard work and a couple of burns from the soldering iron each, the pair had rebuilt the device and had reattached it to the time circuits in the DeLorean. Marty sat in the driver's seat as Doc made the final adjustments. "Alright, Marty, give it some gas."

Marty started the engine, making sure the car wasn't going to shoot forwards, before he pressed his foot down lightly on the accelerator and turned the time circuits on. The flux capacitor started to glow and sparkle by his right shoulder and Marty gave Doc a thumbs up. "All good, Doc."

Doc clapped Marty on the shoulder with a grin as the teen released his foot from the accelerator and turned the car off. "Now that that's all done, all we have to do is to get it out on the road and get that core back to Aperture."

"I have a name!" Wheatley huffed.

Doc fixed him with a glare. "Don't think that we're helping you," he spat. "We're preventing the universe from being destroyed, not helping you specifically. Don't you _dare_ think that you've gotten away with what you did to Marty, myself and GLaDOS."

Wheatley shrunk under Doc's glare, his gaze flickering to the floor. "Oh… I … I know…"

Doc huffed and grabbed the sphere, opening the trunk of the DeLorean and throwing Wheatley inside, before slamming the trunk down again. Wheatley's protests were muffled by the lid slamming closed.

Marty sighed, sitting on the workbench again and wiping some oil off his hands with a rag. He swung his legs a little, staring at the floor.

"Marty?" Doc asked softly, perching beside the teen.

"... why the hell did he do that to us, Doc…? After we helped him, a-after we did so much for him, he just… betrayed us…"

"I know, kiddo," Doc wrapped his arms around Marty, drawing him in close. "I know, but we're going to get rid of him, okay…?"

Marty buried his face into the crook of Doc's neck and sighed. "Okay…"

Doc gave him a reassuring smile and rubbed his back. "It'll work out, Marty, I promise."

"I sure hope so, Doc."


End file.
